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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/economicdeterminOOparciala 


ECONOMIC 
DETERMINISM 


OR 


THE  ECONOMIC  INTERPRETATION 
OF  HISTORY 


BY 

LIDA  PARCE 


CHICAGO 
CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 


^N.\^ 


Copyright,   I913 
By  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company 


JOHN    F.  HIGGINS 

PRINTER  AND  BINDER 

376-382    MONROE  STREET 
CHICAGO.     ILLINOIS 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTE 

"Economic  Determinism"  is  one  of  four  phrases 
which  are  used  interchangeably  by  modem  writers  in  re- 
ferring to  a  sociological  law  which  is  the  joint  discovery 
of  Karl  Marx  and  Frederick  Engels  and  was  first  given 
to  the  world  in  the  year  1848.  The  other  phrases  used 
for  the  same  idea  are  "The  Materialistic  Conception  of 
History,"  "Historical  Materialism,"  and  "The  Economic 
Interpretation  of  History."  The  classic  statement  of  the 
principle  in  the  words  of  Frederick  Engels  is  as  follows : 

"That  in  every  historical  epoch,  the  prevailing  mode 
of  economic  production  and  exchange,  and  the  social  or- 
ganization necessarily  following  from  it,  form  the  basis 
upon  which  is  built  up,  and  from  which  alone  can  be  ex- 
plained, the  political  and  intellectual  history  of  that 
epoch ;  that  consequently  the  whole  history  of  mankind 
(since  the  dissolution  of  primitive  tribal  society,  holding 
land  in  common  ownership)  has  been  a  history  of  class 
struggles,  contests  between  exploiting  and  exploited, 
ruling  and  oppressed  classes;  that  the  history  of  these 
class  struggles  forms  a  series  of  evolution  in  which,  now- 
a-days,  a  stage  has  been  reached  where  the  exploited  and 
oppressed  class — the  proletariat — cannot  attain  its  eman- 
cipation from  the  sway  of  the  exploiting  and  ruling  class 
— the  bourgeoisie — without,  at  the  same  time,  and  once 
and  for  all,  emancipating  society  at  large  from  all  ex- 
ploitation, oppression,  class-distinctions  and  class  strug- 
gles." 

The  phrase  usually  employed  by  the  author  of  the  pres- 
ent work  is  "The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History," 
but  as  this  exact  phrase  has  been  used  as  the  title  of  a 
work  by  Professor  Seligman,  we  have,  with  the  author's 
consent,  used  the  shorter  title  for  this  book. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    Introduction 9 

II    The  Period  of  Savagery  ......  16 

III  The  Period  of  Barbarism 23 

IV  Early  Civilization 38 

V    The  Fall  of  Rome 51 

VI     The  Middle  Ages 59 

VII    The  Modern  Era 97 

VIII     The  Industrial  Revolution       ....  133 


ECONOMIC   DETERMINISM 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  principal  uses  of  the  study  of  history  are  to 
train  the  judgment  of  the  student  and  to  place 
him  in  possession  of  facts  on  which  to  form  his  judg- 
ment. Whether  the  result  of  such  study  is  good  will 
depend  upon  the  validity  of  the  facts  given  and  the 
way  in  which  they  are  interpreted. 

Until  the  past  few  years  it  has  been  customary 
to  present  as  history  only  certain  events  in  the  lives 
of  conspicuous  characters,  such  as  kings  and  po- 
tentates, to  celebrate  their  political  successes,  record 
their  wars,  and  make  as  much  as  possible  of  their 
pomp  and  trappings  of  state.  The  historian  has 
nearly  always  written  with  the  purpose  of  cul- 
tivating the  good-will  of  those  in  power,  and  ap- 
plauding the  nation  about  which  he  wrote.  The 
facts  presented  have  been  those  which  would  lend 
themselves  to  these  purposes  and  the  reasoning  upon 
them  has  been  theological  in  its  methods.  That  is, 
the  whole  list  of  characters  who  figured  in  the  pages 
of  the  historian  were  assumed  to  be  under  the  pro- 
tection of  supernatural  powers,  and  the  events  re- 

9 


lo  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

corded,  whether  of  bloodshed,  chicanery  or  plunder, 
were  regarded  as  being  providential  and  for  the 
glory  of  God.  The  reader  is  taught  that  the  same 
supernatural  power  will  answer  his  prayers  and  in- 
tervene at  the  proper  moment  to  save  him  from 
harm,  while  at  the  same  time  being  responsible  for 
his  misfortunes  in  this  life.  But  while  this  invisible 
power  is  at  the  bottom  of  his  present  sufferings,  they 
are  all  to  be  atoned  for  by  happiness  in  a  future  life, 
if  he  will  only  bear  his  present  burdens  with  meek- 
ness and  submission. 

The  natural  result  of  this  sort  of  teaching  upon 
the  mind  is  that  the  moral  powers  of  the  individual 
are  paralyzed.  If  his  sufferings  and  his  limitations 
are  inevitable,  fixed  by  a  power  beyond  his  control, 
it  would  be  folly  to  try  to  save  himself  from  them. 
If  he  is  saved  from  worse  calamities  by  his  submis- 
sion, it  would  be  madness  to  rebel.  If  by  question- 
ing the  right  and  justice  of  the  present  order  in 
either  heaven  or  earth  he  would  jeopardize  his  fu- 
ture happiness  as  well  as  his  present  safety  from  a 
worse  fate,  he  will  not  only  submit,  he  will  pray, 
he  will  grovel,  he  will  kiss  the  hand  that  smites 
him.  Thus  the  powers  that  be  in  the  high  places  of 
the  earth  are  safe  in  the  possession  of  their  special 
privileges  and  powers  and  have  every  opportunity  to 
increase  them,  while  the  people  are  kept  in  a  state 
of  both  material  and  moral  degradation.  This  sort 
of  history  writing  has  always  been  a  tool,  used 
more  or  less  consciously,  by  the  class  of  people  in 


INTRODUCTION  1 1 

power,  for  keeping  the  mass  of  the  people  quiet 
while  they  plundered  them. 

The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History  proceeds 
by  quite  different  methods;  its  purpose  is  simply  to 
get  at  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth,  and  the  effect 
which  it  produces  on  the  mind  is  exactly  the  oppo- 
site from  that  wrought  by  the  theological  method. 
It  is  a  study  of  the  development  of  society,  and  by 
society  is  meant  all  the  people,  with  their  facilities 
for  getting  a  living,  their  institutions  and  ideas.  It 
has  very  little  to  do  with  either  special  events  or 
particular  individuals.  An  individual  has  no  im- 
portance at  all,  excepting  in  his  relation  to  all  the 
people,  and  then  the  people  are  the  important  thing ; 
he  is  merely  an  incident.  And  the  mainspring  of 
growth  and  action  is  found  in  the  nature  of  the 
people  themselves,  and  not  in  any  outside  power. 
But  above  all,  it  traces  the  ways  in  which  the  races 
of  men  get  their  living,  for  all  other  developments 
depend  upon  changes  and  improvements  in  the  ways 
of  producing  the  food  and  the  clothing  of  the  race. 

When  a  person  sees  that  the  conditions  in  which 
he  lives  are  due  to  causes  which  can  and  do  change 
from  time  to  time,  and  when  he  sees  that  such  changes 
are  the  result  of  new  knowledge  put  to  practical  use, 
or  of  new  inventions  or  discoveries  which  have  been 
made  by  common  men  like  himself,  it  puts  new  hope 
and  courage  into  him.  When  he  sees  that  improve- 
ments can  be  made  by  people  simply  getting  to- 
gether and  making  them,  he  takes  a  new  attitude  al- 


12  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

together.  Whereas  he  was  a  negative  and  passive 
creature  before,  whose  life  was  simply  an  endurance 
test,  of  use  to  nobody,  he  now  becomes  alert  and 
positive.  He  wants  to  learn  about  the  facts  of 
life  and  what  they  mean, and  what  opportunities 
for  improvement  they  offer;  then  he  wants  to  put 
his  shoulder  to  the  wheel  and  push.  It  makes  a 
man  of  him  and  he  begins  to  take  some  satisfaction 
in  life, — this  life;  and  he  becomes  of  use  to  society. 
But  when  a  man  has  grown  up  in  the  old  theological 
habit  of  thought  and  feeling,  it  is  sometimes  well- 
nigh  impossible  for  him  to  get  the  new  understand- 
ing of  life;  to  get  the  wine  into  his  veins,  the  iron 
into  his  blood. 

The  cheat  of  the  old  history-writing  and  history- 
teaching  is  so  coarse  and  has  become  so  plain  and  it 
is  intellectually  so  contemptible  that  outside  of  the 
"divinity"  schools  you  will  not  find  many  professors 
who  are  engaged  in  it  any  more.  In  fact,  teachers 
of  history  in  the  higher  institutions  of  education 
have  become  possessed,  in  the  last  few  years,  of  a 
perfect  passion  for  the  "economic  interpretation." 
And  the  zeal  of  them  promises  well  for  social  re- 
generation. No  young  man  or  woman  who  passes 
under  their  hands  can  grow  up  having  the  paralysis 
of  the  will  which  results  from  the  old  theological 
teachings.  The  elementary  teaching  of  history  in 
the  public  schools  has  not  felt  this  change  to  the 
same  extent,  because  here  teaching  is  more  governed 
by  precedent  and  custom,  and  the  teachers  have  not 


INTRODUCTION  13 

the  same  prominence  to  stimulate  their  intellectual 
pride  in  progress.  And  besides,  the  public  schools, 
at  present,  are  too  much  under  the  control  of  politics 
and  the  school-book  concerns,  to  keep  up  with  the 
march  of  progress  in  education  as  they  should. 

The  old  historical  method  and  the  new  are  ab- 
solutely opposed  to  each  other,  because  the  one  looks 
for  the  causes  of  social  conditions  outside  of  society 
itself,  and  leaves  man  a  hopeless  derelict  without 
oar,  sail  or  compass,  upon  a  sea  which  has  no  port 
in  this  world;  while  the  other  looks  to  the  nature 
of  man  himself  for  both  the  propelling  power  and 
the  guidance  by  which  to  reach  a  higher  social  state. 
They  are  opposed  because  the  former  refers  such 
actions  and  changes  as  do  take  place  to  the  "will  of 
God,"  while  the  latter  recognizes  the  moving  power 
in  the  needs  of  man  and  the  means  which  he  uses 
to  secure  the  satisfaction  of  those  needs.  So  that 
if  one  man  says  that  social  progress  is  due  to  changes 
in  the  processes  of  production,  and  another  man  says 
that  it  is  due  to  human  feelings,  the  two  do  not 
conflict  at  all.  For  the  feelings  are  nothing  but 
the  consciousness  of  need,  or  pleasure  in  the  satis- 
faction of  needs.  And  the  processes  of  production 
are  carried  on  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  the 
needs  which  constitute  the  feelings  of  man.  The 
consciousness  of  the  feeling  and  the  employment  of 
means  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  feeling  are  simply 
different  steps  in  the  same  series. 

The  path  of  progress  began  a  long  way  back,  and 


14  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

at  first  it  was  a  dim  and  wandering  trail.  In  many 
different  times  and  places  man  has  taken  up  this 
trail;  no  one  knows  whence  he  came  nor  where  he 
went,  only  that  he  dropped  out  later  on,  and  left 
only  a  bone  or  a  mound  of  earth  or  an  arrow-point  to 
prove  that  he  ever  lived.  Many  tribes  have  taken 
up  the  trail,  but  most  of  them  dropped  out  along 
the  road,  and  only  a  few  kept  on  until  they  reached 
the  stage  of  civilization.  Some  others  might  have 
reached  that  point  if  left  to  themselves  for  a  long 
enough  time;  but  others  who  were  more  advanced 
have  discovered  and  invaded  them  and  either  wiped 
them  out  or  imposed  upon  them  their  own  ways  of 
living.  When  tribes  are  seen  not  to  have  progressed, 
their  customs  are  not  to  be  taken  as  illustrations  of 
customs  in  the  main  line  of  culture.  They  present 
evidence  on  the  causes  of  failure,  but  only  negative 
evidence  on  the  means  by  which  a  tribe  survives  and 
thrives.  Much  confusion  has  arisen  among  students 
of  primitive  life  by  the  failure  to  make  this  dis- 
tinction. 

It  is  convenient  to  divide  the  history  of  primitive 
peoples  into  periods;  and  one  advantage  of  this  di- 
vision is  that  it  shows  that  the  main  mile-stones  on 
the  road  of  progress  have  been  the  same  throughout 
the  world  wherever  the  tribes  of  men  have  lived 
and  advanced.  Important  inventions  or  discoveries 
have  been  chosen  to  mark  the  advance  from  one 
period  to  another,  and  these  come  in  the  same  suc- 
cession wherever  tribes  of  men  have  lived.     In  no 


INTRODUCTION  15 

case,  for  instance,  has  the  smelting  of  iron,  which 
introduced  later  barbarism,  preceded  the  invention 
of  pottery,  which  marked  the  lower  period  of  bar- 
barism. And  when  you  say  "the  upper  period  of 
barbarism"  it  means  not  only  the  invention  of  the 
smelting  of  iron,  but  all  those  economic  and  social 
changes  that  go  with  it.  Similarly,  when  you  refer 
to  the  middle  stage  of  savagery,  the  mind  instantly 
pictures,  not  only  the  typical  invention  that  has  been 
chosen  to  identify  it  by,  but  the  form  of  the  family, 
the  means  of  subsistence,  and  all  the  peculiar  fea- 
tures of  life  that  accompany  that  invention.  The  di- 
vision into  periods  preserves  a  grouping  of  the  ele- 
ments of  progress  that  is  very  useful  in  forming  con- 
sistent ideas  of  social  and  economic  evolution.  Pre- 
vious to  the  dawn  of  civilization  and  slavery,  man 
saved  himself  from  perishing  from  the  earth  mainly 
by  yielding  to  nature  and  accommodating  himself  to 
her.  After  that  period  is  reached  man  makes  na- 
ture yield  more  and  more  to  his  demands,  he  dis- 
covers many  and  complex  ways  of  subduing  her 
and  making  her  satisfy  his  needs.  And  all  his 
forms  of  government,  social  relations  and  institu- 
tions are  formed  in  accordance  with  these  processes 
of  wringing  a  living  from  an  unwilling  environ- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    PERIOD    OF    SAVAGERY 

MAN  owed  his  ability  to  develop  from  a  mere 
animal  into  a  human  being  to  several  physical 
causes,  one  of  which  was  his  ability  to  stand  erect, 
to  run  on  two  feet  and  to  use  his  hands,  or  fore-feet 
to  throw  stones  and  to  wield  sticks.  Another  and 
perhaps  greater  advantage  was  in  the  construction 
of  his  throat.  For  while  the  other  higher  animals 
have  throats  with  which  they  can  make  certain  in- 
articulate sounds  or  cries  expressing  emotions  of  fear 
or  anger  or  sociability,  man  has  a  throat  with  which 
he  can  make  an  unlimited  number  of  articulations 
with  which  to  express  his  thoughts. 

His  first  home  was  the  forest.^  Here  he  found 
fruits  and  roots  and  nuts  for  his  food,  and  trees 
and  caves  for  shelter.  There  were  no  classes  and 
no  masses  in  those  days,  for  all  had  the  same  needs 
for  food,  shelter  and  defense.^  The  earth's  surface 
and  the  rocks  show  that  glacial  periods  came  on, 
and  changed  the  climate  so  that  the  food  supply  of 
the  forests  was  destroyed.     Then  the  folk  had  to 

1  Charles  Darwin;  Descent  of  Man,  pp.  47,  48.     (Revised  edition,  Merrill 
and  Baker.) 

^Morgan;  Ancient  Society,  pp.  8,  31. 

16 


THE  PERIOD  OF  SAVAGERY  17 

migrate  to  places  where  other  food  supplies  could 
be  found.^ 

The  oldest  skeletons  that  have  been  found  show 
that  man  and  woman  were  equal  in  stature  and 
strength  of  build  and  cranial  capacity.* 

People  secured  food  and  protection  from  animals 
and  enemies  by  helping  one  another;  by  a  voluntary 
mutual  aid. 

In  order  to  continue  his  existence  man  had  to  find 
a  temperate  climate  where  he  could  secure  food  by 
working  for  it.  Extremes  of  climate  do  not  make 
for  progress.  In  too  cold  a  climate  the  reward 
of  effort  is  scant  and  people  do  not  have  the  sur- 
plus energy  that  is  necessary  for  development.  A 
tropical  climate  presents  man  with  his  food  at  the 
cost  of  very  little  effort  and  he  does  not  have  the 
education  that  comes  through  effort. 

Man  migrated  to  the  rivers  and  coasts  where 
there  was  a  supply  of  shell-fish  for  food.  Here  he 
lived  for  a  long  period,  and  the  shells  of  the  fish  he 
ate  formed  heaps  covering  extensive  areas  of  ground. 
These  heaps  are  found  along  the  rivers  and  coasts 
of  every  continent,  and  are  known  as  the  shell- 
heaps  or  kitchen-middens.  Besides  the  shells  and 
soil,  they  contain  fragments  of  charred  wood,  and 
bone  and  stone  implements.  These  show  that  fire 
was  domesticated  and  used  in  the  life  of  the  folk; 

'Daniel  Wilson;   Prehistoric  Man,   Vol.   I,  p.   115. 

*  M.  Manouvrier,  of  the  Paris  School  of  Anthropology,  has  demonstrated 
that  the  females  of  the  stone  age  had  cranial  capacity  considerably  larger 
than  modern  Parisian  females;  while  the  males  of  the  stone  age  had  cranial 
capacity  nearly,  but  not  quite,   as  large  as  modern  male  Parisians. 


i8  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

and  that  they  began  to  make  tools  of  bone  and  stone 
at  this  early  date.  This  period,  when  the  prin- 
cipal implements  were  of  stone,  is  called  the  stone 
age.'' 

The  discovery  of  fire  and  its  use  in  preparing  food 
is  said  to  lift  tribes  into  the  second  sub-period  of 
savagery.  This  discovery  would  have  enabled  them 
to  smoke  and  dry  and  bake  their  roots  and  fish,  and 
so  to  make  their  supply  of  food  more  serviceable.  It 
would  practically  mean  more  food,  and  that  would 
mean  that  their  whole  environment  was  enlarged 
and  they  had  a  better  chance  to  survive.^ 

The  folk  lived  in  groups  or  hordes,  formed  by 
the  natural  increase,  by  reproduction  of  its  members. 
The  head  of  the  group  was  its  oldest  woman,  and 
her  oldest  daughter  succeeded  her.  This  system  is 
called  the  Matriarchate,  and  the  group  of  blood  re- 
lations thus  formed  is  called  the  gens,  though  the 
period  when  its  definite  form  can  be  detected  is  not 
easy  to  locate.'^  The  earliest  form  of  the  family, 
then,  is  the  same  as  the  group  which  is  the  gens. 
The  family  is  the  root  of  the  gens  and  develops  into 
it.  It  consists  of  the  members  of  a  family  relation- 
ship living  together  in  the  marriage  relation.     This  is 

•"  Tylor's    Anthropology, 

«  Ancient  Society,  Part  one.  Chapter  two.  This  is  the  accepted  idea  about 
the  first  uses  of  fire,  though  Wilson  in  Prehistoric  Man,  develops  a  different 
one,  which  is  extremely  interesting. 

'  The  majority  of  writers  have  not  noted  the  existence  of  the  gens 
among  primitive  tribes  at  all.  But  this  is  because  few  writers  have  had 
the  intimate  relations  with  primitive  tribes  that  are  necessary  to  enable 
them  to  understand  the  institutions  of  tribes.  And  it  is  only  since  Morgan 
wrote  Ancient  Society  that  the  nature  and  functions  and  origin  of  the  gens 
have  been  really   understood. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  SAVAGERY  19 

called  the  consanguine  family.  It  is  the  first  form 
of  group-marriage.^ 

So  long  as  the  people  were  dependent  upon  such 
meager  helps  in  securing  subsistence  and  their  tools 
were  so  very  simple,  they  were  unable  to  leave  the 
coasts  and  rivers  where  they  could  find  shell-fish 
for  food.  But  at  length,  after  thousands  and  per- 
haps hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  the  bow  and 
arrow  was  invented.  And  this  one  invention  which 
so  greatly  enlarged  the  economic  basis,  the  food  sup- 
ply of  life,  was  followed  by  a  complete  social  revolu- 
tion. The  people  were  then  enabled  to  leave  the 
coasts  and  river-courses,  and  live  wherever  there  was 
game.  It  not  only  gave  them  greater  freedom  in 
the  choice  of  territory,  but  it  gave  them  also  skins 
for  clothing  and  shelter.  They  no  longer  were  de- 
pendent upon  the  trees  and  caves  for  a  habitation. 
It  broke  up  the  cave-home. 

While  the  men  learned  to  hunt  with  the  new 
weapon,  the  woman  learned  to  dress  the  skins.  At 
the  same  period  the  women  invented  the  weaving 
of  mats  and  baskets  with  the  fingers.  The  baskets 
would  make  possible  a  better  handling  of  the  food, 
and  these  two  inventions  raise  the  tribes  into  the 
third  sub-period  of  savagery. 

The  work  and  training  of  the  two  sexes  now  comes 
to  be  different.  Woman's  occupations  are  the  more 
sedentary,   her  experience   more   narrow;   and   the 

'  Sir    John    Lubbock   was    among    the    first    to    detect    the    evidences    of 
group-marnage.     See'  his   Origin   of    Civilization,   p.    60. 


20  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

skeletons  which  are  found  among  relics  of  this  time 
show  that  woman  now  began  to  deteriorate,  as  com- 
pared with  man.^  The  woman  has  really  begun  to 
be  a  slave  of  the  group.  The  first  class-distinction  is 
thus  made  between  man  and  woman. 

The  gens  develops,  and  becomes  organized.  It 
has  its  council  composed  of  both  men  and  women  who 
are  elected  by  the  votes  of  all  the  members.  If  the 
gens  becomes  over-grown,  it  divides,  but  the  several 
branches  remain  united  in  the  phratry.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  latter  is  to  preserve  the  peculiar  religious 
rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  family,  and  to  worship  the 
common  ancestors.  All  of  the  gentes  which  speak 
the  same  dialect  form  the  tribe;  and  it,  too,  has  its 
council,  composed  of  representatives  of  the  different 
gentes  belonging  to  it.  Both  men  and  women  serve 
in  its  councils  and  have  an  equal  vote  in  choosing  its 
councillors.^" 

So  long  as  the  meat-food  of  the  folk  was  restricted 
to  shell-fish,  and  subsistence  was  accordingly  very 
meager,  the  family  took  no  chances.  It  kept  all  its 
own  members  to  help  find  food,  and  to  defend  the 
group,  and  it  took  in  no  strangers  to  feed.  But 
when  it  found  itself  liberated,  as  it  were,  by  the  in- 
vention of  the  bow  and  arrow,  it  began  to  disregard 
the  customs  of  the  ancestors,  and  to  marry  outside 
the  family.  In  short,  the  consanguine  family  was 
broken  up.     Groups  of  men  from  other  gentes,  hav- 

•  J.  W.  Powell;  Geological  and  Geodatic  Survey,  Vol  IX,  pp.  209-210. 
**!.   W.   Powell:   Wyandot  Government,   Annual   Report   Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology,   1897-98,   pp.    59-63.     Charlevoix's   Voyages,    pp.    23-25. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  SAVAGERY  21 

ing  other  ancestors  and  different  religious  rites,  were 
admitted  in  marriage  to  groups  of  women  within 
the  gens.  This  is  called  the  Punaluan  family.  A 
group  of  women  who  may  or  may  not  be  sisters  is 
married  to  a  group  of  men  who  may  or  may  not  be 
brothers,  but  the  men  are  not  brothers  to  the  women. 
Even  this  family  shows  a  tendency  to  break  up  into 
smaller  groups.  When  a  man  marries,  he  goes  to 
the  home  of  his  wives  and  is  received  into  their 
gens.  The  home  and  the  children  belong  to  the 
wife's  gens  and  descent  is  traced  through  her.  He 
remains  with  her  people  during  good  behavior.  One 
of  the  functions  of  the  gens  is  to  regulate  marriage ; 
and  this  custom  of  marrying  outside  the  gens  is 
called  exogamy.  It  later  becomes  the  rule,  and 
no  one  is  allowed  to  marry  within  the  gens.^^ 

Language,  which  must  have  been  very  simple  at 
first,  consisting  only  of  single  syllables  for  the 
names  of  objects  and  actions,  has  become  quite  com- 
plex, with  the  increasing  complexity  of  life  in  higher 
savagery,  and  words  of  several  syllables  are  used.^^ 

Property  always  enlarges  as  industry  develops, 
but  in  this  stage  of  culture  it  is  held  in  common  by 
the  tribe.  Only  the  most  personal  equipage  be- 
longs to  the  individual,  and  at  his  death,  such  ob- 
jects as  he  owned  revert  to  the  group. 

Religion  takes  on  the  varied  forms  of  nature-wor- 
ship; and  the  phratry  preserves  the  family  tradi- 
tions of  the  gentes,  which  have  long  since  grown 

11  Ward;  Pure  Sociology,  pp.   193,  200,   548. 
"Morgan;   Ancient  Society,   Chapter  IV. 


22  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

into  ancestor-worship.  And  the  sacrifice  of  cap- 
tives, as  a  means  of  propitiating  the  gods,  has  been 
taken  on  by  religion  as  a  side  line. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   PERIOD   OF   BARBARISM 

AS  the  women  did  the  work  of  domestic  manu- 
facture, it  was  they  who  made  the  inventions 
of  tools  and  implements  and  processes  for  doing 
that  work.  Advancement,  in  primitive  times,  de- 
pends more  upon  the  development  of  the  food  and 
clothing  industries  than  anything  else;  and  where 
tribes  have  ceased  to  advance  at  any  stage,  it  must 
be  supposed  that  this  failure  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  women  were  too  much  oppressed  to  make  dis- 
coveries and  inventions. 

The  matter  of  climate  and  natural  products  and 
conditions  is  doubtless  back  of  and  connected  with 
the  special  situations  of  women  in  different  tribes. 
Among  the  aborigines  of  Australia,  who  were  in  the 
middle  sub-period  of  savagery  when  discovered,  the 
women  were  in  a  most  abject  state  of  subjection. 
The  climate  where  they  were  found  living  is  such 
that  natural  food  products  are  plentiful ;  and  many 
writers  have  expressed  surprise  that  people  so 
favorably  situated  should  have  made  so  little  ad- 
vancement. But  when  we  reflect  that  these  people 
were  able  to  live  in  idleness,  that  nature  supplied 
their  wants  without  effort  on  their  part,  we  see  that 

23 


24  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

they  were  without  the  educational  advantages  of 
labor.  And,  as  Professor  Ward  says :  "It  is  effort, 
...  in  which  the  dynamic  quality  inheres."  ["Pure 
Sociology,"  p.  142.]  This  freedom  from  the  neces- 
sity of  labor,  alone,  is  sufficient  to  account  for  their 
backward  state.  If  the  women  had  been  doing  work 
without  which  the  tribes  could  not  live,  they  would 
have  been  treated  with  more  respect.  And  if  they 
had  had  the  training  of  industry,  the  entire  tribe 
would  have  been  developed  by  it.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  these  people,  whose  natural  habitat  was  the 
most  favorable  to  life,  considered  simply  as  life, 
were  the  lowest  in  the  social  scale  of  any  people  who 
have  been  discovered  in  a  wild  state,  by  civilized 
man. 

The  lower  period  of  barbarism  is  distinguished  by 
the  invention  of  pottery,  and  by  the  first  appearance 
of  the  bark  canoe  and  the  dug-out.  Steatite  cooking 
vessels  and  a  multitude  of  polished  stone  imple- 
ments, formed  with  great  nicety  and  used  with  much 
skill,  were  found  among  the  American  Indians  liv- 
ing in  this  stage  of  culture.^  Evidences  of  an  ex- 
tensive commerce  in  some  of  these  primitive  manu- 
factures have  been  traced  on  the  American  continent. 
For  instance,  a  quarry  of  steatite,  littered  with  frag- 
ments of  cooking  vessels,  and  with  chisels  of  a  harder 
stone,  with  which  they  were  dressed  out,  has  been 
found  in  California;  and  vessels  of  the  same  stone 
and  type  of  shape  and  dressing,  have  been  found  all 

*  Charles  Abbott;  Primitive  Industry. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         25 

the  way  from  California  to  the  Mississippi  river. 
And  a  man  lived  in  Alabama  who  had  knowledge  of 
a  vein  of  very  fine  black  marble,  of  which  he  made 
pipes  that  were  highly  prized  for  their  color  and 
beautiful  polish.  He  never  told  where  he  got  the 
marble,  and  thus  kept  a  monopoly  in  his  line  of 
business;  but  these  pipes  found  their  way  as  far 
north  as  Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas,  where  they 
exchanged  for  two  good  robes  apiece.  The  out- 
door work-shop  became  a  regular  institution,  and 
men  were  beginning  to  specialize  in  manufacture. 

The  family  lived  in  communal  houses  or  villages. 
The  Seminoles  had  their  long-houses  of  logs,  a  great 
advance  in  architecture.  The  Seneca-Iroquois  had 
similar  dwellings,  in  which  were  several  rooms,  in 
each  of  which  a  couple  lived,  with  their  offspring. 
Thus  the  marriage  group  was  breaking  up  into  the 
pairing  or  Syndiasmian  family.  This  process  must 
be  understood  to  have  been  a  very  slow  and  prob- 
ably unconscious  one.  The  pairing  family  was  dis- 
tinctly developed  among  some  of  the  Mississippi 
river  tribes,  while  the  Pacific  coast  tribes  still  pre- 
served the  group-marriage,  or  Punaluan  family.^ 

Each  tribe  had  its  tribal  council,  the  members  of 
which  were  elected  by  the  membership  of  the  tribe; 
and  this  council,  composed,  in  most  cases,  of  both 
men  and  women,  decided  matters  of  peace  and  war, 
and  of  public  policy  and  acted  as  a  court  in  trying 

'Schoolcraft:    The    American    Indians.     Charlevoix's    Voyages.     J.     W. 
Powell;  Wyandot  Government. 


26  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

cases  between  members  of  the  different  gentes  of 
the  tribe.  The  laws  consisted  in  the  customs  of 
the  ancestors,  and  the  decisions  of  the  council.  The 
early  explorers  all  made  the  same  sort  of  comment 
upon  the  "liberty,  equality  and  fraternity"  which 
prevailed,  and  the  efficiency  with  which  justice  was 
secured,  as  well  as  the  rareness  of  violations  of  pub- 
lic order.  Members  of  the  council  were  elected  for 
life;  but  there  was  a  custom  called  "knocking  off 
the  horns"  of  councillors.  That  is,  if  a  member  of 
the  council  did  not  serve  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
constituents,  he  was  "recalled,"  and  another  elected 
to  take  his  place.^  The  efficiency  of  the  tribal  gov- 
ernments may  probably  be  attributed  in  some  meas- 
ure to  this  custom.  Another  cause  would  have  been 
the  fact  that  there  was  no  "incentive"  to  corruption 
in  office  because  of  the  absence  of  private  property. 
There  were  no  private  interests  to  be  favored  by 
the  law-makers  and  judges  at  the  public  expense. 

Language  was  always  developing  in  accordance 
with  the  increasing  complexity  of  life.  Among  the 
reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  are  to  be  found 
a  number  of  articles  analyzing  different  Indian 
dialects,  which  have  advanced  so  far  as  to  have  a 
distinct  orthography,  etymology  and  syntax.  And 
at  this  stage  the  first  records,  in  the  shape  of  picture- 
writing  appear,  including  totem  poles  and  inscrip- 
tions on  rocks. 

Custom  comes  to  be  regarded,  first  as  morality, 

•  Morgan ;  Ancient  Society. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         27 

and  then  as  religion.  Tlie  primitive  mind  comes  to 
attach  mystical  importance  and  significance  to  ar- 
ticles of  traditional  use.  All  this  is  a  part  of  an- 
cestor-worship; acts  which  the  ancestors  performed, 
and  objects  which  they  used,  are  considered  sacred. 
And  gradually  the  ancestors  come  to  be  regarded  as 
gods,  and  are  thought  to  rule  the  destiny  of  their 
descendants.  The  worship  of  the  generative  proc- 
esses, as  exemplified  both  in  the  vegetable  and  the 
animal  world,  grows  apace,  and  a  priesthood  grows 
up  in  connection  with  the  phratries. 

The  middle  period  of  barbarism  is  marked,  on 
the  eastern  hemisphere,  by  the  domestication  of  ani- 
mals which  yield  meat  and  milk,  hides  and  wool; 
and  on  the  western,  by  the  development  of  field  and 
garden  agriculture.  Owing  to  this  difference  in  the 
type  of  artificial  food-supply,  a  different  type  of 
social  life  was  developed  on  the  two  hemispheres. 
In  Asia,  where  the  people  lived  on  their  flocks  and 
herds,  a  pastoral  life,  in  which  the  folk  wandered 
from  place  to  place  and  lived  in  tents  made  of  skins, 
grew  up.  On  the  American  continent,  where  the 
folk  got  their  living  from  the  soil,  they  made  per- 
manent homes,  and  village  life  was  established.  On 
parts  of  the  American  continent  irrigation,  in  which 
a  high  degree  of  engineering  skill  was  displayed, 
was  employed  in  the  cultivation  of  corn. 

Industry  is  enlarged  in  this  period  by  the  making 
of  bronze  tools,  and  by  the  use  of  charcoal.  In- 
ventions begin  to  come  fast  now,  and  adobe  bricks 


28  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

are  used  for  housebuilding,  paved  roads  are  made, 
Suspension  bridges  are  built  and  reservoirs  to  hold 
waters  for  irrigation.  The  shuttle  and  hand-loom 
are  invented,  and  everywhere  woven  fabrics,  orna- 
mental pottery  and  basketry  come  into  use. 

By  this  time,  specialized  industry  led  to  the  be- 
ginnings of  personal  property.  Tribes  began  to 
confederate,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  peace 
and  security.  The  Iroquois  Confederation,  among 
whom  Mr.  Lewis  Morgan  spent  many  years  of  his 
life,  is  a  good  illustration  of  this  development  in 
primitive  government.  With  the  freedom  from  the 
demands  of  war  which  came  with  the  confederation, 
men  began  to  give  more  attention  to  economic  in- 
terests. The  products  of  industry  had  hitherto  be- 
longed to  the  gens,  for  the  common  use.  But  that 
was  when  industry  was  wholly  a  woman's  affair. 
Men  did  not  produce  commodities  for  the  common 
use,  but  for  their  exchange  value;  and  because  pos- 
session was  the  road  to  power.  The  natural  cor- 
relative of  personal  ownership  was  transmission  to 
personal  heirs.  Descent  had  always  been  traced  in 
the  female  line,  but  the  pairing  family  now  made 
it  possible  to  trace  descent  in  the  male  line,  and  the 
personal,  economic,  interests  of  the  man  now  de- 
manded it.  So  from  this  time  on,  the  Syndiasmian 
family  became  the  standard  of  morality.  Polyg- 
amy, however,  was  permitted.  A  man  could  have 
several  wives,  but  a  woman  could  only  have  one 
husband.     Thus  the  double  standard  of  morality 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         29 

makes  its  appearance  in  history.  Heretofore,  the 
sex  relation  had  never  been  considered  vicious.  It 
was  simply  a  natural  fact,  and  was  accepted  as  other 
natural  facts  were;  but  from  this  time  it  becomes 
vicious.  Not  because  of  any  inherent  quality,  but 
because  it  might  cause  confusion  in  the  paternity  of 
offspring.  In  all  the  history  of  tribal  government 
in  America,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  the  death 
penalty  for  any  crime  previous  to  this  change  in  the 
family;  but  after  the  change  of  the  line  of  descent 
the  death  penalty  was  inflicted  by  at  least  one  tribe, 
on  any  woman  who  contracted  a  sex  relation  out- 
side her  marriage. 

When  descent  was  changed  from  the  female  to 
the  male  line  the  very  foundation  of  the  gens  was  de- 
stroyed. The  matriarchate,  with  its  "freedom, 
equality  and  fraternity,"  the  tribal  council  with  its 
democratic  representation,  the  communal  industry, 
the  common  food  supply,  all  went  with  it. 

Records  advanced  during  this  period  from  the 
picture  writing  stage  to  that  of  hieroglyphics. 

Personal  gods  and  goddesses,  representing  the  ele- 
ments of  nature,  and  the  natural  functions,  increase 
in  number.  Spirits  of  the  earth- and  air  and  demons 
are  seen  everywhere,  in  the  imagination.  Rites  and 
ceremonies  increase  in  importance,  no  act  is  thought 
to  be  properly  performed  without  some  religious 
formality  and  as  a  consequence  the  priesthood  gains 
enormously  in  importance  and  power. 

On  the  North  American  continent,  as  we  know, 


30  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  culture  of  the  original  inhabitants  was  destroyed, 
before  it  reached  the  higher  sub-period  of  barbarism. 
But  on  the  eastern  hemisphere  two  groups  of  tribes 
survived  until  they  reached  this  state.  The  Aryan, 
including  the  Hindu,  Persian,  Greek,  Latin,  Celtic, 
Teutonic  and  Slavonic;  and  the  Semitic,  in- 
cluding the  Hebrew,  Babylonian,  Assyrian  and 
Arabic.  In  the  western  hemisphere  the  Aztecs  and 
Peruvians  reached  this  stage. 

After  the  use  of  charcoal  and  the  smelting  of 
copper  and  manufacture  of  bronze  came  the  smelt- 
ing of  iron.  Here,  at  last,  was  a  metal  which  was 
so  hard  and  would  take  so  keen  an  edge  that  mira- 
cles, almost,  might  be  performed  with  it.  Things 
could  be  done  with  iron  that  could  not  be  attempted 
with  the  softer  bronze.  Implements  and  tools  that 
were  unthinkable  before  now  became  realities. 
The  plow  with  an  iron  point,  iron  nails  to 
fasten  planks  with,  the  wheel  with  an  iron  rim, 
the  spear  with  an  iron  point,  the  sickle,  and 
innumerable  tools  which  could  do  work  hitherto 
impossible.  It  seems  like  opening  the  door  to  free- 
dom, like  striking  the  shackles  off  the  hands,  this 
discovery  of  the  smelting  of  iron.*  And  it  raised 
the  entire  life  of  the  folk  a  step  nearer  to  civilization, 
by  making  possible  the  arts  of  civilization.  Ships 
were  now  built  of  planks,  and  wheeled  vehicles  were 

*  Grote  expresses  a  doubt  that  iron  was  in  use  among  the  Greek  tribes 
at  this  stage,  because  no  mention  of  iron  is  made  in  the  Homeric  poems, 
which  are  a  reliable  clue  to  the  developments  of  the  time.  But  Tacitus' 
Germania  mentions  that  the  Germanic  tribes  had  iron  which  they  used  in 
the  blades  of  their  spears  at  an  earlier  stage  than  this. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         31 

invented.  Animals  were  harnessed  to  the  iron-shod 
plow,  the  potter's  wheel  and  the  hand-mill  for  grind- 
ing grain  were  invented.  "Professional  men,  such 
as  the  smith,  the  carpenter,  the  leather-dresser,  the 
leech,  the  prophet,  the  bard  and  the  fisherman  ap- 
pear." ^  In  the  normal  development  of  agriculture 
numerous  fruits  and  grains  and  grasses  were  added 
to  the  resources  for  food  and  forage  and  are  men- 
tioned in  the  songs  of  the  early  poets.  Numerous 
flocks  of  cattle  and  sheep  grazed  on  the  hills  of  the 
Asiatic  and  Mediterranean  countries,  while  the 
Peruvians  kept  herds  of  llamas,  for  their  wool. 

Personal  property  and  the  bequeathing  of  it  to 
heirs  gave  another  value  to  labor  besides  that  which 
it  had  simply  as  a  means  of  supplying  food  and 
clothing.  The  ownership  of  property  gave  a  man 
influence  and  power.  But  the  product  of  a  man's 
own  labor  was  not  enough  to  satisfy  his  ambition; 
even  if  he  had  many  wives  and  children  to  work  for 
him  it  would  not  make  him  very  rich  or  powerful. 
How  could  he  secure  more*?  Slavery  was  the  an- 
swer. To  capture  the  people  of  other  tribes,  or  to 
enslave  the  people  of  his  own  tribe,  and  make  them 
work  for  him.  Land  became  valuable,  because  la- 
bor was  most  productive  when  applied  to  land,  and 
the  fruits  of  the  soil  were  at  the  bottom  of  all 
production.  So  the  land,  that  had  been  owned  in 
common  before,  was  taken  by  the  strongest  men  and 
the  weaker  tribes  were  captured  by  the  stronger 

"Grote:  Traditional  Greece,  Vol.  II. 


32  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

tribes,  and  thus  slavery,  the  private  ownership  of 
land  and  the  patriarchal  institution  all  came  into 
being  as  one  great  transaction.  The  social  revolu- 
tion was  accomplished.  The  strong  man  would 
hereafter  live  in  a  little  Utopia,  all  his  own,  bounded 
on  all  sides  by  privation,  want,  misery'  and  vice. 

There  is  no  longer  any  representation  of  the  peo- 
ple in  government.  The  patriarch  is  the  govern- 
ment; he  is  lawgiver,  judge,  executioner  and  high' 
priest.  Democracy  is  dead.  An  irresponsible,  ab- 
solute despotism  has  taken  its  place.  The  despotism 
of  the  patriarch.  We  are  accustomed  to  think  that 
polygamy  was  the  distinct  and  peculiar  thing  about 
the  patriarchal  family,  but  nothing  could  be  farther 
from  the  truth.  Mr.  Lewis  Morgan,  in  "Ancient 
Society,"  has  described  the  patriarchal  family  in 
these  terms:  "The  chiefs,  at  least,  lived  in  polyg- 
amy, but  this  was  not  the  material  principle  of 
the  patriarchal  institution.  The  organization  of  a 
number  of  persons,  bond  and  free,  into  a  family,  un- 
der paternal  power,  for  the  purpose  of  holding 
lands,  .  .  .  was  the  essential  characteristic  of  this 
family.  It  was  the  incorporation  of  numbers,  in 
servile  and  dependent  relation,  before  that  time  un- 
known, rather  than  polygamy,  that  stamped  the 
patriarchal  family  with  the  attributes  of  an  original 
institution." 

The  office  of  the  patriarch  or  chief  is  now  heredi- 
tary, and  the  strongest  chiefs  now  grow  into  little 
kings.     Gradually  the  kings  bring  the  lesser  patri- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         33 

archs  under  submission,  and  the  beginnings  of  na- 
tionality are  formed.  Society  is  commencing  to 
organize  large  units  again,  but  on  the  basis  of  the 
territory  controlled  through  its  owners  by  the  king. 
But  what  a  difference  appears  in  the  character  of  the 
people  under  this  new  regime. 

The  traditions  of  the  Greeks  were  woven  into 
poetry  during  this  period,  and  previous  to  the  in- 
vention of  phonetic  writing  they  were  handed  down 
orally  from  generation  to  generation.  Finally  they 
were  committed  to  writing  and  have  come  down  to 
the  present  time  as  the  Homeric  poems, — though 
probably  no  such  man  as  Homer  ever  lived;  or  if 
he  did,  he  did  not  write  the  poems.  They  were  the 
work  of  a  people,  and  if  they  do  not  record  the  his- 
tory of  their  time  with  veracity,  they  do  show  the 
customs  and  manners  of  the  period.  In  Grote's 
History  of  Greece,  the  twentieth  chapter  is  devoted 
to  the  "State  of  Society  and  Manners  as  Exhibited 
in  Grecian  Legend."  The  following  observations, 
gleaned  from  that  chapter,  will  give  an  idea  of  the 
transformation  which  had  taken  place  in  society. 

"We  discern  a  government  in  which  there  is  little 
or  no  scheme  or  system,  still  less  any  idea  of  re- 
sponsibility to  the  governed, — ^but  in  which  the 
mainspring  of  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  people 
consists  in  their  personal  feeling  and  reverence  to- 
ward the  chief.  We  remark,  first  and  foremost,  the 
king;  next,  a  limited  number  of  subordinate  kings 
or  chiefs;  afterwards,  the  mass  of  armed  freemen, 


34  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

husbandmen,  artisans,  freebooters,  etc.;  lowest  of 
all,  the  free  laborers  for  hire,  and  the  bought  slaves. 
The  king  is  not  distinguished  by  any  broad  or  im- 
passable boundary  from  the  other  chiefs  ...  his 
supremacy  has  been  inherited  from  his  ancestors, 
.  .  .  having  been  conferred  upon  the  family  as  a 
privilege  by  the  favor  of  Zeus.  .  .  .  An  ample  do- 
main is  assigned  to  him  as  an  appurtenance  of  his 
lofty  position.  .  .  .  Moreover,  he  receives  frequent 
presents,  to  avert  his  enmity,  to  conciliate  his  favor, 
or  to  buy  off  his  exactions;  and  when  plunder  is 
taken  from  the  enemy,  a  large  previous  share,  com- 
prising probably  the  most  alluring  female  captives, 
is  reserved  for  him,  apart  from  the  general  dis- 
tribution. .  .  .  The  people  harken  to  his  voice,  em- 
brace his  propositions  and  obey  his  orders,  not 
merely  resistance,  but  even  criticism  upon  his  acts, 
is  generally  exhibited  in  an  odious  point  of  view, 
and  is,  indeed,  never  heard  of  except  from  some  one 
or  more  of  the  subordinate  princes." 

"As  in  the  case  of  the  gods,  the  general  epithets 
of  good,  just,  etc.,  are  applied  to  them  as  euphemisms 
arising  from  fear  and  submission,  being  not  only 
not  "suggested,  but  often  pointedly  belied,  by  their 
particular  acts.  These  words  signify  the  man  of 
birth,  wealth,  influence,  and  daring,  whose  arm  is 
strong  to  destroy  or  to  protect,  whatever  may  be  the 
turn  of  his  moral  sentiments;  while  the  opposite 
epithet,  bad,  designates  the  poor,  lowly  and  weak; 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM         35 

from  whose  dispositions,  be  they  ever  so  virtuous, 
society  has  little  either  to  hope  or  to  fear." 

Hesiod,  with  his  poem  "Works  and  Days,"  is  next 
in  time  after  Homer,  and  Grote  says  of  him  that 
"He  repeats,  more  than  once,  his  complaints  of  the 
crooked  and  corrupt  judgments  of  which  the  kings 
were  habitually  guilty;  dwelling  upon  the  abuse  of 
justice  as  the  crying  evil  of  his  day,  and  predicting 
as  well  as  invoking  the  vengeance  of  Zeus  to  repress 
it.  And  Homer  ascribes  the  tremendous  violence  of 
the  autumnal  storms  to  the  wrath  of  Zeus  against 
those  judges  who  disgrace  the  agora  with  their 
wicked  verdicts." 

It  appears  that  human  nature  was  changed  beyond 
recognition,  since  the  days  of  communal  property, 
communal  industry  and  democratic  self-government. 

The  agora,  ostensibly  an  assembly  of  the  people, 
had  become  simply  a  means  for  the  king  to  publish 
his  decisions,  and  to  give  the  chiefs  a  chance  to  talk. 
But  it  was  so  well  used  for  the  latter  purpose,  and 
the  art  of  public  speaking  and  political  discussion 
developed  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  people, — that 
is,  the  male  portion  of  the  people, — were  able  once 
more  to  bring  their  kings  under  control  and  reduce 
them  to  the  position  of  public  servants. 

During  this  period,  women  were  stripped  of  all 
political  power  and  even  personal  freedom;  and  the 
only  respect  they  enjoyed  was  such  as  lingered  with 
the  traditions  of  their  former  position  in  society.     In 


36  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  earlier  traditions,  the  greatest  of  crimes  was  to 
kill  the  mother;  but  after  the  revolution  was  com- 
plete, it  became  a  minor  offense  to  kill  the  mother, 
and  to  kill  the  father  became  the  greatest  possible 
crime.  In  the  oldest  Aryan  traditions  the  earliest 
deities  are  goddesses.  The  first  god  is  the  son-hus- 
band of  the  goddess.  These  traditions  owe  their 
origin  to  the  period  when  woman  was  the  most 
prominent  figure  in  human  affairs  and  when  man 
owed  his  importance  to  her.  The  son-husband  and 
brother-husband  of  the  early  goddesses  are  survivals 
of  the  consanguine  family;  the  imagination  would 
not  have  produced  such  deities  out  of  the  whole 
cloth.  Life  first  had  to  produce  the  facts,  before 
the  imagination  could  reproduce  and  perpetuate 
them. 

If  a  man  has  committed  homicide,  a  religious 
ceremony  "purifies"  him.  If  he  finds  himself  in 
foreign  parts,  alone,  and  wanting  the  protection  of  a 
family,  he  is  "adopted"  by  some  chosen  family,  by 
a  ceremony  which  makes  him  of  one  blood  with 
them.  If  he  wishes  to  receive  the  protection  and 
patronage  of  a  powerful  man,  he  goes  to  his  house, 
sits  in  the  ashes  of  his  hearth,  and  performs  a  cere- 
mony which  attaches  him  by  an  inviolable  tie  to 
his  patron;  neither  one  can  thereafter  disregard  the 
tie  without  incurring  the  displeasure  and  punishment 
of  the  gods.  Does  a  man  start  on  a  journey;  a  cere- 
mony must  be  performed.     Does  he  embark  upon  a 


THE  PERIOD  OF  BARBARISM        37 

business  enterprise;  rites  are  necessary  to  its  success. 
Is  he  born,  does  he  marry,  does  he  die'?  The  good- 
will of  the  gods  must  be  secured  by  offerings,  sacri- 
fices, and  other  acts  of  devotion. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EARLY    CIVILIZATION 

A  NUMBER  of  ancient  races :  Egypt,  Babylonia, 
Assyria  and  perhaps  others,  reached  a  stage 
closely  bordering  on  civilization  and  then  disap- 
peared. Others,  as  China  and  India,  reached  an 
early  stage  of  civilization,  and  instead  of  advan- 
cing in  culture,  crystallized  their  early  institutions  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  have  remained  nearly  sta- 
tionary ever  since ;  and  the  early  conditions  thus  per- 
petuated are  only  now  being  broken  up  by  the  im- 
pact of  other  nations  upon  them  from  without. 
These  two  latter  nations  have  been  sleeping,  as  one 
may  say,  the  one  on  its  religion,  the  other  on  its 
philosophy,  for  thousands  of  years;  and  it  is  now 
by  the  adoption  of  the  mechanical  inventions  of  for- 
eign nations,  whereby  the  economic  difficulties  of 
life  are  to  be  solved,  that  they  are  at  last  waking 
up. 

The  patriarchal  family,  consisting  of  slaves  who 
produce  goods  for  the  patriarch,  and  consuming, 
themselves,  only  so  much  of  the  product  as  is  neces- 
sary to  sustain  life  and  working  power,  contains  the 
seed  of  its  own  destruction.  There  is  bound  to  be 
a   surplusage    of   goods, — otherwise    the   patriarch 

38 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  39 

would  go  out  of  business.  And  this  surplus  of  goods 
must  be  disposed  of.  Some  member  of  the  family 
must  leave  the  patriarchal  roof-tree  in  quest  of  a 
market;  and  the  accumulation  of  these  marketing 
persons  forms  the  commercial  town.  And  the  pa- 
triarch has  no  authority  over  the  town  or  its  inhabit- 
ants. The  people  of  the  town  form  their  own 
laws,  which  relate  to  the  conditions  of  city  life,  and 
govern  the  industries  and  commerce  of  the  town ;  and 
thus  the  city  law,  or  civil  law  grows  up.  Such  laws 
are  a  curious  mixture  of  old  tribal  customs  relating 
to  primitive  life,  in  which  offenses  are  regarded  as 
sins  against  the  gods,  and  statutes  for  the  regulation 
of  the  newly  developed  commercial  activities,  viola- 
tions of  which  are  regarded  as  crimes  against  the  in- 
dividual and  the  state.  These  laws  finally  get  com- 
mitted to  writing;  and  in  this  way  the  old  primitive 
folk-customs  and  superstitions  are  perpetuated  and 
handed  down  to  future  generations;  the  ignorant 
continue  to  "believe"  in  them  through  habit  and  the 
crafty  make  use  of  them  for  their  private  gain. 

The  city  is  a  veritable  lodestone;  it  offers  varied 
human  association,  experience,  change,  life,  personal 
freedom  and  a  chance  for  gain,  and  a  movement  of 
the  population  from  the  country  to  the  town  sets  in. 
The  city  raises  an  army  for  the  public  defense;  it 
waxes  strong  with  its  industries  and  its  commerce, 
and  then  it  reaches  out  to  control  the  surrounding 
country.  It  sends  forth  its  army  and  the  patriarch 
submits  to  its  authority,  whereupon  he  becomes  sub- 


40  ECONOxMIC  DETERMINISM 

ject  to  its  laws  and  his  patriarchal  state  vanishes. 
Thus  grew  up  the  city-states  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
The  old  customary  law  takes  note  only  of  the 
family  as  the  unit  of  society;  but  the  city  law  is 
obliged  to  recognize  the  individual,  since  it  has  to 
control  him  in  his  individual  capacity.  Crimes  for 
which  a  whole  family  was  formerly  penalized  are 
now  visited  on  the  offender  alone.  It  is  still  a  popu- 
lar platitude  to  say  that  the  family  is  the  unit  of 
the  state;  but  it  is  wholly  untrue.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  the  family  is  the  unit  of  society,  but  it  is 
in  no  sense  the  unit  of  the  state,  since  the  state  does 
not  deal  with  the  family  in  any  single  case,  but  al- 
ways with  the  individual. 

The  invention  of  phonetic  writing,  that  is,  writing 
in  which  the  simple  sounds  are  represented  by  char- 
acters which  are  variously  combined  to  form  different 
words,  is  the  typical  achievement  which  marks  off 
this  stage  of  civilization  from  the  preceding  one.  It 
is  difficult  to  realize  the  extent  to  which  such  a  sys- 
tem of  symbols  for  ideas  liberates  the  mind,  and  en- 
ables it  to  arrange  its  concepts  in  order,  to  systema- 
tize them,  to  form  a  train  of  reasoning,  and  arrive 
at  judgments.  Mechanical  inventions  for  the  use 
of  the  hands  make  it  possible  to  construct  material 
things  which  were  impossible  before;  but  this  me- 
chanical invention  for  the  use  of  the  mind  was  no 
less  necessary  as  a  means  of  thought  construction. 
The  Chinese  never  invented  a  phonetic  alphabet, 
their  thought-processes  have  always  been  burdened 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  41 

with  a  cumbersome  and  difficult  set  of  symbols,  and 
this  is  undoubtedly  one  reason  why  they  have  been 
so  backward  in  constructive  thought. 

The  earliest  writings  about  Greece  show  that  for  a 
period  of  some  centuries,  though  it  is  not  known  how 
long,  the  country  was  in  a  state  of  turmoil  a  greater 
portion  of  the  time,  owing  to  the  accumulations  of 
property  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men,  and  the  in- 
ability of  the  masses  to  find  the  means  of  support. 
From  time  to  time  the  rich  would  become  arrogant 
and  ostentatious,  the  poor  would  multiply,  and  the 
disorders  arising  from  this  condition  would  become 
so  great  that  at  last  everyone  would  become  fright- 
ened and  be  willing  to  accept  any  change  that  would 
promise  safety.  Then  a  lawgiver  would  arise,  re- 
allot  the  lands,  extinguish  the  debts  of  the  poor,  and 
free  those  who  had  been  enslaved  for  debt.  This 
would  restore  peace  and  order  for  a  time,  but  the  old 
system  of  production  would  continue  the  same,  the 
laws  under  which  the  disorders  grew  up  would  be 
allowed  to  stand  and  presently  the  crafty  and  un- 
scrupulous would  begin  the  same  process  again, 
events  would  repeat  the  same  course,  and  the  same 
remedy  would  again  be  applied.  In  about  the  ninth 
century  B.  C,  Lycurgus  is  said  to  have  made  a  re- 
division  of  lands;  at  any  rate  he  established  a  public 
mess,  at  which  all  the  citizens  of  Sparta  were  re- 
quired to  eat.  Each  citizen  was  obliged  to  con- 
tribute a  certain  portion  of  produce  to  the  public 
larder,  from  his  holding  of  land.     If  a  man  became 


42  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

too  poor  to  make  the  contribution  he  lost  his  citi- 
zenship. During  the  life-time  of  Lycurgus  there 
were  eight  or  ten  thousand  citizens.  In  the  time  of 
Aristotle,  the  number  had  dwindled  to  one  thousand, 
and  a  century  later,  in  250  B.  C,  it  was  only  seven 
hundred.  A  new  redistribution  was  afterwards 
made  in  Sparta,  with  the  hope  of  rehabilitating  the 
state,  but  it  was  too  late.  Decay,  due  to  ine- 
qualities of  opportunity,  had  progressed  too  far,  and 
the  once  unconquerable  Sparta  was  overcome  by 
foreign  arms,  a  victim  to  the  avarice  of  its  rich  and 
greedy  citizens. 

The  public  table  of  the  Spartans  was  a  last  ap- 
pearance of  the  old  custom  of  the  common  food- 
supply  of  the  gens,  with  the  difference  that,  in 
this  case  it  was  enforced  by  the  law-giver,  by  his 
personal  authority.  It  is  recorded  that  he  tried  to 
bring  the  women  also  under  a  similar  rule,  but  they 
would  have  none  of  it. 

In  about  the  year  600  B.  C,  the  disorders  in 
Athens,  arising  from  the  concentration  of  property 
in  a  few  hands,  and  the  enslavement  of  the  people 
for  debt,  became  so  great  and  so  threatening  that  an 
uprising  of  the  population  promised  to  destroy  the 
rich  along  with  their  property.  In  this  emergency, 
Solon,  the  archon,  was  urged  by  all  classes  to  take 
the  helm  of  state,  and  steer  the  ship  into  quiet  waters, 
if  such  could  be  found.  The  rich,  it  appears,  wished 
him  to  make  himself  a  despot  and  protect  their 
property  with  his  power;  while  the  poor  wished  him 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  43 

to  make  another  distribution  of  the  lands.  Solon 
took  the  helm,  but  he  steered  a  middle  course. 
Those  who  had  been  enslaved  for  debt  were  freed, 
the  debts  of  the  poor  were  remitted,  and  he  enacted 
a  law  forbidding  the  enslavement  of  persons  for  the 
payment  of  borrowed  money.  Those  who  had  the 
land  were  permitted  to  keep  it;  and  thus,  by  being 
freed  of  one  of  its  worst  features,  the  system  of  the 
private  ownership  of  land  became  established.  But 
that  was  not  all.  The  ownership  of  land  was  made 
the  basis  of  eligibility  to  public  office.  Heretofore, 
the  four  Ionic  tribes,  and  the  gentes  and  phratries 
of  which  they  were  composed,  had  formed  the  basis 
of  political  recognition  in  the  budding  state.  Now, 
Solon  had  a  census  taken,  by  which  all  the  citizens 
were  divided  into  four  classes  according  to  the  in- 
come from  their  lands.  The  lowest  class,  embra- 
cing all  those  without  property  and  those  having  only 
a  small  income,  was  much  the  largest  of  the  four. 
The  highest  positions  in  the  state  were  reserved 
for  those  in  the  highest  property  class.  Inferior 
offices  were  given  to  those  of  the  second  and  third 
classes,  while  those  in  the  fourth  were  ineligible 
to  any  public  employment  whatever.  The  fourth 
class,  however,  were  given  votes  in  the  election  of 
the  government  officials,  and  the  la^tter  were  made 
accountable  to  the  assembly  of  this  fourth  class. 
Solon  "gave  to  the  people  as  much  power  as  was 
strictly  needful  and  no  more."  But  thus  was  the 
so-called  democracy  of  Athens  put  upon  its  feet,  and 


44  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  old  gentile  system  of  political  standing  accord- 
ing to  race  and  blood,  changed  for  one  in  which  a 
man  was  rated  politically  according  to  his  property 
holdings. 

Women  have  now  altogether  ceased  to  be  a  part  of 
the  people.  Greece  entered  upon  a  long  period 
of  development  in  knowledge,  and  all  the  elements 
of  social  culture,  but  her  women  had  no  part  in  it. 
They  were  kept  in  a  certain  portion  of  the  houses, 
where  they  did  the  domestic  manufacturing,  in  the 
capacity  of  slaves;  having  no  education  and  no 
social  life.  The  slave  mothers  of  a  citizenship 
whose  highest  joy  and  pride  was  freedom! 

But  like  the  patriarchal  family,  the  political  de- 
mocracy contained  the  germs  of  its  inevitable  decay. 
Not  only  Solon  but  every  other  law-giver  and 
statesman  realized  that  the  state  built  on  private 
property  must  be  a  military  state,  in  order  to  protect 
its  property.  But  private  ownership  of  property 
led  to  accumulations  of  property,  and  these  ac- 
cumulations in  turn  led  to  a  soft,  luxurious,  idle 
life,  not  compatible  with  valor  and  military  ideals. 
They  saw  also,  that  the  increase  of  economic  wealth 
depended  upon  the  growth  of  industry,  and .  that 
industry  was,  equally  with  idleness,  unfavorable  to 
the  military  spirit.  And  both  these  difficulties  they 
tried  to  meet,  with  legislation,  hoping  to  overcome 
the  natural  laws  of  society,  with  the  laws  of  man. 

In  Sparta,  the  citizen  was  forbidden  to  engage  in 
industry,  while  in  Athens  it  was  held  to  be  undigni- 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  45 

fied  and  scarcely  respectable  for  the  citizen  to  work. 
Slavery  was  an  economic  necessity,  in  order  to  main- 
tain and  increase  private  property.  War  was  a 
necessity,  in  order  to  protect  the  property  and  to 
get  more  slaves.  And  war  meant  death  to  the 
holder  and  defender  of  the  property,  while  slavery 
meant  worse  than  death.  Here  then,  is  the  in- 
soluble difficulty  of  an  all-man  regime.  Women 
have  no  place  in  a  government  based  on  property, 
because  life  is  worth  more  than  property  to  women. 
And  when  a  man's  world  gets  itself  well  trained  to 
subordinate  life  to  property,  like  the  Dutchman's 
horse,  which  he  trained  so  carefully  to  live  without 
eating,  it  "up  and  dies." 

The  advancement  of  society  is  dependent  upon 
its  economic  development,  but  it  is  not  the  same 
thing  as  economic  development.  Society  can  not 
advance  very  far  unless  the  wealth  of  a  country  is 
made  the  servant  of  all  the  people,  both  its  men 
and  its  women.  When  any  section  of  the  people 
is  made  secondary  in  importance  to  its  wealth,  a 
nation  places  limits  upon  its  advancement  which 
must  in  time  prove  its  undoing.  And  when  any 
section  of  a  nation's  people  is  deprived  of  a  part  of 
the  rights  and  freedom  of  action  which  the  others 
enjoy,  that  society  is  deprived  of  a  part  of  the  power 
by  which  it  is  propelled  onward.  In  this  way  the 
ancient  world,  both  of  Greece  and  of  Rome,  handi- 
capped itself  hopelessly  from  the  first,  by  its  system 
of  private  ownership  of  the  means  of  producing  sub- 


46  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

sistence  and  making  human  life  simply  a  means  to 
the  end  of  producing  economic  wealth. 

Fatal  results  followed  from  the  conditions  here 
set  forth; — namely,  that  those  who  worked  were 
slaves,  and  the  class  who  were  educated  and  cul- 
tured, did  no  work.  On  the  one  hand  a  slave  has 
no  incentive  for  invention  or  discovery  and  his  con- 
dition makes  it  impossible  to  apply  such  powers 
as  he  has  to  innovations  in  his  work.  And  his  lack 
of  education,  with  the  narrowness  of  his  experience, 
cuts  him  off  from  both  the  means  and  the  materials 
which  an  inventor  must  have  at  his  disposal.  The 
result,  then,  of  the  slavery  of  the  workers,  was 
that  throughout  the  period  of  early  civilization,  no 
new  discoveries  or  inventions  were  made,  such  as 
are  necessary  to  open  the  door  of  a  higher  social  or- 
der. This  society  could  not  go  forward,  and  because 
it  was  surrounded  by  barbarian  tribes  who  were 
going  forward,  it  could  not  crystallize  as  did  the 
oriental  societies.  It  decayed  instead  and  was  bat- 
tered to  pieces. 

On  the  other  hand  the  cultured  classes,  being  cut 
off  from  constructive  labor,  turned  their  attention, 
not  to  the  immediate  material  facts  of  their  exist- 
ence, but  to  theories  of  the  universe.  And  for  cen- 
turies the  philosophers  busied  themselves,  necessarily 
without  success,  in  trying  to  explain  life  by  the 
most  general  and  abstract  theories.  This  effort 
finally  produced  in  the  leisure  class  a  morbid,  pessi- 
mistic, hopeless  state  of  mind.     They  ceased  trying 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  47 

to  understand  the  world  about  them,  and  either  ac- 
cepted the  philosophy  of  despair,  or  turned  to  specu- 
lation upon  the  supernatural. 

Some  of  the  observations  of  the  early  shepherd- 
astrologers  were  made  the  foundation  of  an  ele- 
mentary astronomy;  but  the  shepherds  were  now 
slaves,  and  the  astrologers  fakirs;  and  so  no  new 
facts  were  observed,  and  the  science  of  astronomy 
never  passed  beyond  the  elementary  stage.  In 
chemistry  they  got  no  farther  than  the  theory  that 
the  universe  is  composed  of  four  elements:  earth, 
air,  fire  and  water.  In  medicine,  after  all  the 
theorizing  of  the  centuries,  nothing  was  produced  of 
any  value,  beyond  the  housewife's  practical  knowl- 
edge of  a  few  herbs. 

The  trouble  with  the  philosophers  was  that  they 
did  nothing  but  philosophize;  and  progress  is  the 
result  of  doing.  Of  doing  things  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  wants  of  the  individual. 

This  era  of  early  civilization,  as  said  before,  was 
ushered  m  by  the  invention  of  phonetic  writing,  and 
the  opening  of  this  new  door  led  to  all  the  brilliant, 
though  superficial,  culture  of  the  ancient  world. 
First,  the  epic  poems  which  told  the  stories  of  the 
gods  were  written  down,  along  with  the  ancient 
customs  of  the  people;  and  these  latter  constituted 
the  laws.  Then  came  grammar,  rhetoric,  oratory, 
logic,  philosophy,  art,  and  the  drama.  And  the 
pursuit  of  these  forms  of  culture  led  to  a  refined 
and  luxurious  life.     But  its  enjoyment  was  limited 


48  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

to  a  minority-group  of  men.  Thought  was  sys- 
tematized to  an  extraordinary  degree,  but  limits 
were  set  to  its  achievements  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
speculative  rather  than  scientific.  It  dealt  with 
theories  instead  of  facts.  It  began  at  the  abstract 
rather  than  the  concrete  end  of  things. 

In  getting  civilization  established,  the  form  of 
the  family  was  once  more  changed,  by  the  elimina- 
tion of  polygamy.  That  is,  the  children  of  all  the 
slaves  but  one  were  made  illegitimate.  A  Greek 
citizen  might  have  any  number  of  female  slaves,  but 
he  could  marry  only  a  Grecian  woman,  and  her 
sons  were  his  heirs.  This  is  the  Aryan  family;  and 
along  with  it  an  elaborate  system  of  slave  prosti- 
tutes of  various  orders  was  maintained  by  the  state. 
There  were  the  flute-players,  who  were  kept  at  the 
public  expense,  but  were  hired  or  loaned  to  private 
parties  for  special  occasions  of  festivity.  Then 
there  was  a  class  who  were  kept  in  a  certain  quarter 
of  the  town,  which  they  were  not  permitted  to  leave ; 
the  concubines,  or  industrial  slave  women,  and  last, 
the  Hetairai,  or  free  women,  who  were  friends  and 
companions  of  the  philosophers  but  were  not  neces- 
sarily prostitutes.  Thus  the  price  paid  for  the 
"legitimacy"  of  the  wife  and  the  heirs  fell  pretty 
heavily  on  woman  in  general. 

The  laws  of  Rome,  from  the  earliest  period,  had 
a  contrivance  called  "The  Perpetual  Tutelage  of 
Women,"  whereby  it  was  provided  that  all  women, 
even  though  they  were  the  offspring  of  free  fathers, 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  49 

always  remained  slaves.  They  belonged  to  the 
family  estate,  like  the  other  slaves  and  the  live 
stock;  and  when  they  were  married  they  were 
simply  transferred  from  one  estate  to  another. 
They  never,  under  any  circumstances,  became  free. 
Later,  in  medieval  Europe,  the  unmarried  woman 
became  emancipated,  at  a  given  age,  like  her 
brother,  but  at  her  marriage  the  old  institution  of 
the  Perpetual  Tutelage  of  Women  was  revived,  and 
she  became  the  slave  of  her  husband. 

By  the  time  of  civilization,  the  male  gods  had 
come  to  dominate  Olympus  just  as  man  had  come  to 
dominate  the  earth.  The  worship  of  the  generative 
processes  in  nature  had  become  debased;  the  phallic 
worship  had  descended  to  debauchery.  The  sacred 
groves  and  temples  of  the  male  and  female  deities 
were  schools  of  vice;  and  the  law  was  employed  to 
enforce  their  practices.  The  chief  concern  of  re- 
ligion was  to  secure  the  gratification  of  the  senses, 
to  control  the  people  through  their  fear  of  the 
unknown  and  to  secure  revenues  to  the  priest- 
hood. 

After  the  indefinitely  long  period  of  years  through 
which  the  patriarchal  family  with  its  absolute 
despotism  prevailed,  the  Greeks  slowly  and  pain- 
fully won  their  way  back  to  a  sort  of  representative 
government  which  they  called  a  democracy.  But 
the  corruption  of  the  representatives,  for  the  sake 
of  gaining  riches  and  power  for  themselves,  led  to 
oligarchy   and  monarchy,   to  national   decay,    and 


50  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

finally  to  the  destruction  of  the  Greek  civilization 
by  Rome. 

Rome  followed  much  the  same  course  in  the  de- 
velopment of  her  government,  her  ideas  and  her  in- 
stitutions as  that  which  Greece  had  pursued;  with 
the  principal  exception  that  she  pushed  her  military 
conquests  farther  and  held  them  longer  by  following 
them  up  with  economic  developments.  She  carried 
her  arms  as  far  north  as  the  North  Sea  and  the  island 
of  Britain,  on  the  west,  as  far  east  as  the  river 
Rhine  and,  east  of  the  Rhine,  as  far  north  as  the 
Danube.  And  wherever  she  established  her  political 
control  she  built  roads  leading  from  the  capital  of 
the  empire  to  its  farthest  boundary  and  established 
commerce  and  encouraged  industry,  thereby  intro- 
ducing civilization.  Even  after  her  military  power 
could  be  pushed  no  farther  she  sent  out  industrial 
colonies,  with  companies  of  soldiers  to  protect  them 
and  to  defend  the  commerce  which  arose  as  a  result 
of  the  cultivation  of  industry.  Thus  the  Roman 
civilization  was  carried  by  economic  means  to  terri- 
tories which  had  repelled  the  Roman  arms,  namely, 
the  country  north  of  the  Danube  and  east  of  the 
Rhine;  and  the  commercial  cities  of  the  German 
country,  Mayence,  Worms,  Spires,  and  Strasburg, 
Bingen,  Coblentz,  Bonn,  Cologne,  Augsburg,  Sals- 
burg,  and  Vienna,  all  owe  their  origin  to  the  period 
of  Roman  conquest,  either  by  arms  or  by  commerce. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   FALL  OF   ROME 

IN  Greece  and  Rome,  war  had  been  a  necessity 
for  so  long  a  time  that  it  came  to  be  regarded  as 
something  almost  sacred.  It  was  considered  the  only- 
honorable  occupation ;  and  valor  became  the  national 
ideal.  The  military  profession,  therefore,  afforded 
the  only  means  of  illustrating  the  popular  ideal. 
In  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  industry  was  considered  de- 
grading; because  it  was  thought  that  it  had  a  tend- 
ency to  tame  the  spirit,  and  make  a  man  common- 
place and  unheroic.  The  farming  class,  which  was 
held  in  contempt  as  being  beneath  the  standard  of  re- 
spectability, was  oppressed  with  unreasonable  taxa- 
tion for  the  support  of  the  military  establishment, 
until  farming  became  impossible,  and  the  plains  of 
Italy  were  abandoned  to  nature,  which  reduced  them 
again  to  a  state  of  wilderness ;  and  the  rural  popula- 
tion crowded  into  the  city,  where  they  had  to  be 
fed  with  grain  taken  from  the  conquered  provinces, 
either  at  public  expense  or  by  private  charity.  Un- 
der these  circumstances  the  government  became  en- 
feebled, so  that  it  was  unable  to  carry  on  further 
wars  of  conquest,  or  even  to  guard  its  long  frontier 
from  the  barbarians  of  central  Europe. 

51 


52  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

It  is  a  time-honored  fashion  of  the  historian  to 
ascribe  the  down-fall  of  Rome  to  its  "dissolute 
women."  This  is,  of  course,  a  departure  from  the 
"economic  interpretation"  of  history.  And  when 
the  economic  causes  of  the  decay  of  that  ancient  gov- 
ernment are  so  glaringly  apparent  to  even  the  most 
casual  student,  it  is  only  by  extreme  perversity  that* 
the  historian  can  close  his  eyes  upon  them,  and  go 
so  far  out  of  the  way  as  to  hold  the  alleged  im- 
morality of  the  women  responsible.  This,  however, 
has  been  done  even  recently,  by  writers  who  are 
ordinarily  keen  at  making  the  "economic  interpreta- 
tion." It  seems  hard,  indeed,  to  get  away  from  the 
old,  old  habit  of  saying,  "the  woman  did  it." 

Rome  being  in  this  enfeebled  condition,  and  its 
powerful  citizen-princes  being  no  longer  engaged 
in  foreign  wars,  they  turned  their  arms  against  each 
other;  and  the  country  was  ravaged  and  plundered 
by  their  depredations,  until  there  was  no  longer  any 
security  for  either  life  or  property.  The  highways 
became  so  insecure,  and  travel  so  dangerous  that 
commerce  became  well-nigh  impossible;  and  in- 
dustry suffered  in  like  proportion.  The  owners  of 
slaves,  having  now  no  employment  for  them  and 
no  means  of  feeding  them,  freedom  became  easy  to 
secure  or  was  willingly  bestowed  as  a  gift. 

The  Greek  philosophers  had  started  with  the 
theory  that  human  nature  was  perfect, — that  if  a 
man  followed  all  the  impulses  of  his  being  he  would 
lead  a  perfect  moral  life.     One  wonders  that  such 


THE  FALL  OF  ROME  53 

a  theory  was  entertained,  at  a  time  when  all  women 
were  industrial  and  sexuar  slaves,  and  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  male  population  were  also  enslaved. 
Surely,  a  slave  could  not  follow  the  impulses  of 
her  or  his  being.  All  but  a  small  class  of  the  peo- 
ple were  rendered  immoral  by  the  conditions  created 
for  them  by  that  small  minority  who  were  free,  ac- 
cording to  this  theory,  yet  such  the  theory  undoubt- 
edly was.  When  the  Romans  conquered  Greece, 
the  victors  carried  home  with  them  the  philosophers, 
as  a  part  of  the  spoil  of  conquest,  and  quite  a  fury 
for  the  Grecian  culture  fell  upon  the  Roman  leisure 
class.  Philosophy  was  everywhere; — ^philosophy 
and  logic,  rhetoric  and  art.  The  very  air  the  Roman 
citizen  breathed  was  Grecian  culture.  Thus  the 
theory  that  human  nature  was  perfect  became  a 
part  of  the  Roman's  catechism.  But  that  theory 
was  already  greatly  damaged  and  brought  into  dis- 
credit by  the  fact  that  the  Greek  had  come  to  his 
own  destruction  by  following  the  impulses  of  his 
own  human  nature.  And  by  the  time  of  the  period 
of  Roman  decay,  the  Roman  philosophers  had  come 
to  the  unhappy  conclusions  that  man  was  not  only 
not  wholly  good,  but  that  he  was,  on  the  contrary, 
altogether  bad.  Even  his  very  best  was  wholly  vile, 
and  so  hopeless  a  case  was  he  that,  according  to  the 
philosophers,  the  only  approach  to  virtue  possible  of 
attainment  for  him,  lay  in  the  ceaseless  mortifica- 
tion of  the  flesh  and  the  crushing  of  every  impulse 
of  his  nature. 


54  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

At  the  same  time,  speculation,  giving  up  this  life 
and  this  world  as  a  bad  job,  turned  toward  another 
world  and  a  future  life,  which  was  to  be  so  blessed 
that  it  would  atone  for  the  miseries  of  this  life,  if 
only  the  flesh  were  sufficiently  overcome  here  and 
now.  So  the  "unemployed,"  for  very  lack  of  em- 
ployment, took  up  the  task  of  mortifying  the  flesh, 
as  a  profession.  Thousands  of  them,  according  to 
the  accounts,  fled  to  the  deserts  of  Africa  and  to  the 
desolate  Italian  plains,  and  took  up  their  abode  in 
caves,  ruins  and  old  tombs  where  they  lived  hermit 
lives,  striving  with  the  spirit,  against  the  flesh  and 
the  devil. 

In  this  state  of  things  temporal  and  spiritual,  the 
Christian  church  was  founded  during  the  life  of  the 
first  Roman  emperor.  The  imperial  government 
had  nothing  to  offer  to  the  common  man;  but  the 
church  was  organized  as  a  pure  democracy,  and  the 
disinherited  of  the  earth  flocked  to  it,  as  to  a  shelter 
in  a  storm.  Nonresistance,  community  of  goods, 
humility,  charity,  these  were  the  principles  on  which 
it  was  built.  In  this  first  organization,  woman  stood 
on  the  same  footing  as  man,  in  every  matter,  even 
to  being  ministers  and  going  about  through  the 
provinces,  where  they  preached  to  the  people  and 
organized  the  believers  into  congregations. 

The  church  adopted  rules  for  worship  and  the 
conduct  of  its  members,  compliance  with  which  was 
at  first  purely  voluntary.  As  it  grew,  however,  and 
its  power  spread  and  consolidated,  the  rules  were 


THE  FALL  OF  ROME  S5 

made  obligatory,  and  it  assumed  control  over  both 
the  worldly  and  the  spiritual  affairs  of  its  adherents. 
Thus  it  grew  into  a  powerful  body  of  silent  protest, 
a  republic  within  an  imperial  state. 

As  the  civil  government  became  increasingly  un- 
able to  control  its  barbarous  neighbors  on  the  north, 
the  church  began  sending  out  missionaries  into  their 
midst,  building  her  chapels  on  the  sites  of  their 
pagan  worship,  at  their  sacred  springs  and  under 
their  sacred  trees,  and  converting  them  to  her  creed, 
that  she  might  control  them  through  their  con- 
sciences. Meantime,  she  had  adopted  the  theories 
of  the  decadent  philosophers  regarding  the  vileness 
of  the  flesh,  and  had  improved  a  thousand  times 
upon  their  speculations  of  perfect  bliss  or  complete 
damnation,  in  a  life  to  come.  Thus  she  was  able 
to  control  the  barbarians  through  their  fears  of  a 
future  state,  though  the  civil  government  was  un- 
able to  punish  them  for  sins  done  in  the  flesh. 
Added  to  this,  in  the  fourth  century,  the  church  be- 
gan to  make  use  of  the  machinery  of  the  secular  law, 
to  execute  her  judgments  upon  offenders  against  her 
rules. 

Meantime,  also,  the  hermits  of  the  deserts  and 
the  tombs  had  gathered  together  in  groups  and 
formed  monasteries,  and  these  monastic  orders  had 
been  adopted  into  the  church,  as  a  part  of  her  or- 
ganization. The  vow  of  chastity  was  added  to 
those  of  nonresistance,  poverty,  brotherhood  and 
meekness  which  the  ordinary  church  member  was  re- 


56  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

quired  to  take;  and  yet  the  monks  were  a  great  pest, 
both  to  the  communities  in  which  they  settled,  and 
to  the  church.  They  were  extremely  undependable, 
always  coming  and  going  and  leading  idle  and  useless 
lives.  At  last,  however,  also  in  the  fourth  century, 
the  golden  remedy  for  their  disorder  was  found; 
they  were  put  to  work.  The  vow  of  industry  was 
added  to  the  other  vows,  and  the  monasteries,  the 
church,  and  the  whole  of  Europe,  wherever  the 
church  had  settled,  entered  upon  a  new  career,  a 
career  of  prosperity  and  real  usefulness  to  civiliza- 
tion. 

A  vast  development  of  monasticism,  both  for  men 
and  women,  now  took  place,  absorbing  throngs  of 
the  ex-slave  population,  as  well  as  many  people  of 
rank  and  wealth.  The  poor  entered  the  monasteries 
because  they  found  there  food,  shelter  and  protection 
at  the  same  time  that  they  believed  that  their  spirit- 
ual inquiries  were  answered.  The  rich,  because 
they  were  safe  from  being  attacked  and  plundered 
of  their  wealth.  The  able,  because  there  they  found 
opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  their  powers  in  the 
administration  of  the  vast  estates  which  the 
monastic  orders  acquired;  and  for  many  centuries 
the  craftiest  politicians  and  the  best  executives  of  the 
world  were  found  occupying  the  positions  of  abbots 
and  bishops  in  the  Roman  church.  Women  entered 
the  monastic  life,  because  there  they  could  not  be 
forced  to  marry  against  their  will,  nor  assaulted  by 
the  marauders  who  infested  every  corner  of  the  land. 


THE  FALL  OF  ROME  57 

The  monk  and  the  nun  worked  without  remunera- 
tion, practicing  poverty,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  early  church;  but  the  monastery  kept  the 
product  of  their  toil,  and  waxed  fat  and  prosperous. 
And  under  this  too  great  prosperity  the  aims  of  the 
church  from  being  wholly  spiritual  at  first,  came  to 
be  wholly  temporal,  namely,  the  acquirement  of 
property  and  political  power. 

The  church  had  by  this  time,  reversed  its  original 
attitude  toward  woman,  owing  more  than  anything 
else  to  the  reactionary  doctrine  preached  by  the 
apostle  Paul,  and  to  the  general  decline  of  culture. 
Woman  had  been  deprived  of  one  right  after  an- 
other until  she  was  entirely  ostracized  from  par- 
ticipation in  church  affairs,  excepting  as  a  worshiper, 
a  penitent  and  a  contributor. 

At  the  same  time  that  Christianity  was  growing 
with  such  strides,  the  pagan  temples  and  the  priest- 
hood attached  to  them  were  multiplying  as  rapidly 
in  Rome; — as  impostors  will  arise  where  remunera- 
tive employment  is  not  to  be  had.^ 

The  old  ideal  of  valor  was  now  dead  and  quite 
cold,  having  given  place  to  the  negative  ideal  of 
virginity.  The  barbarian  overran  the  Eternal 
City.  Culture  and  education  declined  to  the  vanish- 
ing point.^  The  Roman  language  became  corrupted 
by  the  admixture  of  the  barbarian  dialects,  until, 
in  the  dark  ages,  there  was  no  longer  any  Latin 

*  Theodore  Mommsen:   History  of  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.   559. 

•  JJallam:  History  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


58  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

spoken,  and  the  philosophers  and  writers  of  antiquity 
were  so  far  forgotten  that  they  were  said  to  have 
been  great  magicians, — such  being  the  only  kind  of 
greatness  which  that  priestly  age  could  comprehend. 

It  was  in  the  year  476  that  Odoacer,  a  Germanic 
general  from  the  region  of  the  Danube,  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Roman  capital,  and  reigned  as  a  German 
king.  The  sun  of  early  civilization  had  now  set, 
and  the  long  night  of  a  thousand  years  settled  over 
the  continent  of  Europe.  Yet  the  conquered  peo- 
ple were  from  the  first  better  off  in  some  respects 
than  they  had  been  before.  For  the  taxes  were  re- 
duced and  the  change  from  the  old  imperial  system 
to  feudalism  relieved  the  people  of  many  ancient 
tyrannies. 

The  German  soldiers  who  had  followed  the  new 
king  were  allotted  portions  of  the  conquered  lands, 
and  so  were  made  noblemen,  and  ruled  the  country 
as  dukes  and  counts,  under  the  authority  of  the 
king.  It  was  their  duty  to  fight  for  the  king,  to 
attend  at  court,  where  they  were  obliged  to  do 
homage  every  so  often,  and  to  serve  as  officers  in 
his  household  and  assist  in  the  administration  of 
the  royal  domain.  They  in  their  turn,  bestowed 
portions  of  land  on  other  fighting-men,  who  thereby 
became  their  vassals,  and  constituted  a  smaller  no- 
bility. In  the  aggregate  there  were  a  great  many 
of  these  nobles,  small  and  great;  but  the  mass  of 
the  people  were  landless  freedmen,  serfs,  or  slaves. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

THE  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  were  a 
period  of  migrations,  toward  the  west  and 
south,  throughout  the  continent  of  Europe.  Mi- 
grations which  overflowed  into  the  Island  of  Britain 
and  exterminated  the  old  population,  planting  an- 
other in  its  stead;  and  for  a  time,  conquered  and 
held  portions  of  northern  Africa.  And  in  the  main, 
it  was  those  tribes  living  east  of  the  Rhine  and 
north  of  the  Danube,  whom  the  Romans  had  never 
been  able  to  conquer,  who  held  the  country  and  re- 
mained to  establish  the  nations  of  modern  Europe. 

Whenever  a  migrating  king  and  his  soldiers  con- 
quered a  tribe  and  took  their  territory  he  gave  the 
land  out  in  allotments  to  his  own  people,  and  the 
survivors  of  the  native  population  became  "land- 
less men,"  or,  if  taken  in  battle,  they  became  slaves. 
The  "landless  men"  or  freedmen,  as  they  were  also 
called,  had,  like  the  women  and  the  children,  no 
recognition  in  law,  unless  represented  by  some  land- 
owner, who  appeared  as  his  guardian.  A  freedman 
could  bear  arms  and  his  death  could  be  avenged, 
but  he  had  no  place  in  the  assembly  of  the  people, 

59 


6o  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

and  could  not  take  part  in  the  administration  of 
justice. 

The  land  was  allotted  in  two  ways :  First,  every 
soldier  of  the  conquering  band  received  a  tract  in 
absolute  ownership,  called  allodial  land.  Besides 
this,  the  king  bestowed  other  areas,  sometimes  vast 
estates,  as  the  duchies,  counties  and  marches,  upon 
the  leading  men  of  the  tribe,  who  held  them  in  fee 
or  "fief";  and  the  holder  became  the  vassal  of  the 
king.  He  was  then  bound  to  bear  arms  for  the 
king  on  demand,  do  homage  at  court  at  stated  in- 
tervals, assist  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and 
he  was  expected  to  make  contributions  to  the  royal 
exchequer.  Such  was  the  feudal  system.  The  vas- 
sal of  the  king  could  in  turn  give  these  same  lands 
to  other  men  in  the  same  sort  of  tenure,  and  they 
could  repeat  the  process,  so  that  there  might  be 
five  or  six  tenants  and  subtenants  to  the  same  piece 
of  land,  and  the  holdings  were  often  cut  up  into 
fiefs  so  small  that  three  or  four  vassals  were  obliged 
to  co-operate  to  keep  one  fighting-man  ready  for 
the  field.  The  overlord  was  obliged  to  defend  his 
tenant,  and  so  it  became  a  common  practice  for 
holders  of  allodial  land  to  yield  their  holdings  to 
some  lord  and  receive  them  back  again  in  feudal  ten- 
ure, for  the  sake  of  protection.  Bishops  and  abbots, 
the  lords  of  the  church,  received  large  tracts  of  land 
in  both  feudal  and  absolute  tenure;  so  far  had  they 
wandered  from  the  principle  of  poverty  which  was 
one  of  their  original  vows.     On  the  other  hand, 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  61 

kings  and  nobles  of  every  degree  surrendered  their 
lands  to  the  lords  of  the  church  and  received  them 
back  again  in  fee,  in  order  to  receive  the  protection 
of  the  church.  As  the  Roman  civilization  retro- 
graded and  the  barbarian  culture  advanced,  what 
with  the  migrations  of  the  northern  peoples  toward 
the  south  and  the  scattering  of  the  Romans  north- 
ward, a  fusion  of  the  two  grades  of  culture  gradually 
came  about.  Some  of  the  German  chiefs  got  the 
customs  and  laws  of  their  peoples  written  down 
in  Latin,  but  not  until  they  had  become  tinctured 
with  the  principles  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence. 
And  the  priests,  who  covered  the  face  of  Europe 
with  the  network  of  their  chapels,  carried  with  them 
the  books  of  the  Roman  law  in  one  saddle-bag, 
while  the  bible  occupied  the  other.  And  as  priests 
and  "clerks,"  being  the  only  men  of  education,  they 
found  themselves  in  a  position  to  give  character  and 
direction  to  the  budding  jurisprudence  of  the  Euro- 
pean territories.  But  it  was  always  necessary  to 
interpret  and  to  apply  the  civil  law  in  the  light  of 
the  usages  of  the  people,  and  to  limit  it  in  some 
measure,  to  the  barbarian  understanding.  Thus,  in 
the  words  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  was  "modem  juris- 
prudence forged  in  the  furnace  of  barbarian  con- 
quest." For  the  states  of  modem  Europe  are  to 
this  day  governed  by  the  civil  law,  thus  grafted  onto 
the  primitive  customs  of  the  early  tribes. 

One  secret  of  the  power  of  the  church  to  impose 
the  Roman  law  lay  in  the  fact  that  she  had  the  law 


62  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

written  down  in  books,  while  the  northern  peoples 
had  no  written  law ;  and  in  the  further  fact  that  she 
adopted  the  civil  law  in  the  administration  of  her 
vast  establishment.  And  her  constant  tendency 
was  to  extend  her  rule  over  the  secular  and  temporal 
as  well  as  the  spiritual  affairs  of  her  subjects.  She 
was  assisted  in  this  by  the  pagan's  fear  of  all  the 
gods.  And  while  the  Roman  priest  permitted  only 
the  worship  of  the  one  God,  he  adopted  all  the  more 
important  local  deities  of  the  pagans  into  the  cal- 
endar of  the  Roman  church  as  saints,  and  thus  an- 
nexed the  pagan  worshipers  to  the  "true  religion." 
And  so  it  came  about  that  the  church  was  feared 
and  her  laws  respected  throughout  Europe,  and  her 
property  and  that  of  her  vassals  was  safe  from 
molestation  at  a  time  when  the  king  himself,  and 
the  feudal  barons  were  subject  to  attack. 

The  handicrafts  of  the  Roman  period  had  all  but 
disappeared,  because  the  craftsman  could  neither 
practice  his  art  nor  teach  it,  for  lack  of  physical  pro- 
tection. But  the  church  encouraged  the  craftsman 
to  take  refuge  within  her  zone  of  calm,  and  there  to 
produce  his  wares  for  her  profit,  and  teach  his  cun- 
ning to  the  brothers.  So  the  handicrafts  were  pre- 
served from  extinction,  during  that  darkest  period 
until  the  common  man  had  again  so  far  reclaimed 
his  freedom  and  his  power  that  he  could  command 
safety  by  his  own  strength. 

Agriculture  was  revived  again  on  the  broad 
monastic  acres,  for  there  the  crops  could  not  be 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  63 

trampled  nor  the  fences  thrown  down  nor  the  cat- 
tle driven  off,  without  bringing  down  the  vengeance 
of  the  local  deities  upon  the  heads  of  the  offenders. 
With  so  much  fighting  going  on,  and  no  security- 
existing  in  the  open  country,  the  custom  of  yielding 
up  allodial  lands  and  receiving  them  back  in  fee  be- 
came so  general  that  freemen  almost  disappeared,  and 
the  mass  of  the  populatioa  sank  to  the  level  of  petty 
vassals,  differing  little,  if  any,  from  the  serfs.     In 
England,  by  the  tenth  century,  it  became  a  common 
saying  that  no  man  could  exist  without  a  lord.     The 
I        "lordless  man"   was   as  helpless   as  the   "landless 
'        man." 

When  a  man  surrendered  his  lands  and  received 
them  back  in  feudal  tenure,  the  tribute  and  service 
J,        which  he  engaged  to  pay  in  return  for  protection 
■         were  written  down  in  the  roll-book  at  the  manor- 
house,  and  the  vassal  was  given  a  copy  of  the  same. 
He  thereby  became  a  "copy-holder,"  and  the  class 
t        of  "copy-holders"  practically  superseded  the  class 
I        of  freemen.     So  much  for  the  effect  of  the  aristo- 
I        cratic,  land-owning  power,  on  the  population  in  the 
open  country,  where  there  was  no  other  organized 
power  to  combat  it. 

But  elsewhere,  quite  different  forces  were  opera- 
ting, undoing  the  work  of  subjection,  and  silently, 
obscurely,  bringing  back  the  freedom  of  the.  race, 
by  the  constant  irresistible  force  of  evolution  in  the 
economic  field. 

Nature   prods  on  the   "landless  man"   and   the 


64  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

"lordless  man"  to  devise  means  for  the  satisfaction 
of  his  wants,  quite  without  reference  to  the  quarrels 
of  lords  or  the  intrigues  of  prelates.  And  while  the 
migrations  stirred  new  currents  in  the  blood  of  men, 
acquaintance  with,  or  the  echoes  of  the  arts  of 
Roman  civilization  gave  new  suggestions  and  aroused 
new  ambitions  in  men's  minds.  So  it  was  that  the 
old  Roman  commercial  towns  in  the  Rhine  country 
and  on  the  Danube  commenced  slowly  to  pulsate 
with  a  new  life,  and  the  stream  of  commerce  began 
to  trickle  again  along  the  old  highways  of  trade.  It 
is  difficult  to  trace  the  revival  of  industry  and  trade, 
for  the  older  historians  mention  such  things  only  in 
passing;  and  the  newer  historians  have  only  just 
begun  to  open  the  treasury  of  records.  But  there 
was  enough  commerce  between  the  Italian  cities 
and  the  east  Mediterranean  countries  to  support 
a  goodly  number  of  gentleman-highwaymen  and 
pirates  along  the  coasts,  even  in  the  darkest  days; 
and  where  there  is  so  much  piracy  there  must  be 
some  trade. 

In  primitive  days,  at  a  place  where  cross-roads 
intersect,  or  where  a  ferry  crosses  a  stream,  a  smithy 
will  undoubtedly  be  found.  And  in  a  military  age, 
an  armorer  and  a  farrier  will  probably  locate  near 
by.  Also  where  wagons  loaded  heavily  with  pelts 
and  wool,  hay  and  grain,  are  passing  in  both  direc- 
tions the  wheelwright  will  find  enough  employment 
to  induce  him  to  settle  his  shop  in  the  vicinity.     So 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  65 

many  traffickers  will  require  a  tavern  where  man  may 
drink  and  eat  and  sleep,  and  all  these  people,  congre- 
gating and  passing,  will  create  a  market  for  the 
linsey-woolsey  and  the  serge,  the  seer-sucker  and 
the  crash,  which  are  produced  in  every  farmhouse, 
the  country  over.  Some  enterprising  man  whose 
family  makes  a  surplus  of  these  things  will  open  a 
store  for  their  sale;  and  there,  altogether,  you  have 
a  little  town.  And  the  building  of  every  cathedral 
gave  rise  to  a  city.  These  germs  of  cities  must 
have  existed,  as  soon  as  there  was  enough  security 
to  enable  men  to  plant  and  garner  crops,  and  enough 
time  for  the  people  of  different  localities  producing 
other  commodities,  to  learn  each  other's  needs  and 
to  produce  a  surplus  above  their  own  requirements 
with  which  to  supply  them.  Such  are  the  real  proc- 
esses of  social  life,  the  real  functions  by  which 
society  lives.  Fightings  and  governings  are  the 
mere  aberrations  of  people  more  or  less  insane. 
Such  beginnings  are  obscure,  but  there  are  records 
to  show  that  they  must  have  been  early  made.  At 
the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  the  emperor  Charle- 
magne opened  trade  routes  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to 
the  borders  of  Greece,  and  made  commercial  treaties 
with  cities  already  in  existence,  at  both  extremities 
of  the  system,  while  he  built  free  markets  for 
foreign  traders  in  a  large  number  of  German  cities. 
William  the  Conqueror  found  thriving  towns  in 
Britain  when  he  arrived  in  the  eleventh  century ;  and 


66  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

in  the  thirteenth  century  there  were  two  hundred  on 
that  island.  London  had  25,000  inhabitants,  York 
and  Bristol  ten  thousand  each. 

The  towns  were  subject  to  the  law  and  justice 
of  the  feudal  lords  on  whose  desmesne  they  were 
situated,  just  as  was  an  individual  tenant.  They 
performed  military  service,  did  homage,  and  paid 
dues  and  services.  The  townsmen  of  Leicester,  for 
instance,  "were  bound  to  reap  their  lord's  corn-crops, 
to  grind  at  his  mill,  to  redeem  their  strayed  cattle 
from  his  pound.  .  .  .  The  justice  and  government 
of  a  town  lay  wholly  in  its  master's  hands;  he  ap- 
pointed its  bailiffs,  received  the  fines  and  forfeitures 
of  his  tenants,  and  the  fees  and  tolls  of  their  mar- 
kets and  fairs."  ^  Each  borough,  however,  had  its 
clubs  or  guilds,  for  social  purposes,  charity,  religion, 
and  the  regulation  of  commerce;  and  in  the  hands 
of  these  guilds  lay  all  the  internal  administration  of 
the  town.  The  merchant-guild  became  everywhere 
the  most  important.  At  first,  any  man  who  made 
goods  for  the  market  might  belong  to  the  merchant- 
gild,  and  it  exercised  a  general  care  for  all  the  social 
affairs  of  all  its  members.  But  as  the  towns  grew 
and  the  burghers  waxed  rich,  the  merchant-guild 
gradually  limited  itself  to  the  more  important  and 
larger  branches  of  commerce  and  became  practically 
an  oligarchy,  governing  both  the  domestic  and 
foreign  affairs  of  the  town  for  its  own  profit. 

But  before  growth  reached  this  stage  the  eco- 

1  Green's  History  of  the  English  People. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  67 

nomic  needs  of  the  feudal  lords  had  opened  the 
way  to  freedom,  not  only  to  their  individual  vassals 
and  serfs,  but  to  the  towns  which  stood  in  the  same 
relation  to  them.  For  every  time  a  feudal  lord 
wanted  to  build  a  castle  or  an  abbey,  to  knight  his 
son  or  marry  off  a  daughter,  to  go  on  a  crusade  or 
give  an  entertainment  beyond  his  means,  he  needed 
money  and  he  was  usually  improvident  and  poor. 
But  the  towns  invariably  had  money,  their  humblest 
citizen  could  raise  a  little  coin  if  it  was  a  case  of 
a  chance  for  freedom;  and  as  time  passed  there  was 
ever  less  and  less  use  for  their  services.  So  the 
suzerain  would  send  his  sheriff  to  the  town,  and  to 
the  vassals  of  high  and  low  degree  on  his  demesne, 
and  publish  the  fact  that  for  the  payment  of  cer- 
tain stated  sums  freedom  would  be  restored.  Even 
the  humblest  serf,  if  allowed  to  go  to  the  town, 
would  be  able  to  earn  the  money  for  the  purchase  of 
his  liberty,  and  the  lord  was  only  too  glad  to  let 
him  go ;  for  he  was  always  needing  money  more  and 
service  less.  Thus,  without  any  legal  process  or 
the  enactment  of  any  law,  and  only  by  virtue  of 
being  let  alone  so  that  they  could  work,  a  nation  of 
"copy-holders"  was  restored  to  a  nation  of  free  men. 
The  medieval  period  is  marked  throughout  and 
everywhere  by  a  struggle  of  the  king  to  bring  the 
feudal  barons  under  control ;  to  deprive  them  of  the 
power  of  carrying  on  private  wars,  of  administer- 
ing private  justice,  of  levying  tolls,  fines  and  fees 
on  the  population ;  to  organize  his  own  law  and  jus- 


68  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

tice,  a  national  system  of  taxation  and  a  national 
military  establishment.  Under  the  feudal  system  the 
king  and  the  barons  maintained  their  private  owner- 
ship of  the  land  and  the  means  of  subsistence,  by  mu- 
tual support.  But  this  arrangement  was  never  satis- 
factory because  of  the  personal  ambitions  and  mu- 
tual jealousies  of  everyone  concerned.  The  barons 
never  wanted  the  king  to  become  powerful  enough 
to  control  them,  and  he  never  wanted  them  to  be- 
come strong  enough  to  secure  independence  of  him- 
self. In  this  case,  the  king  in  England  had  re- 
course to  the  old  primitive  levy  of  troops  among  all 
the  men  on  the  land.  The  emperor  of  Germany 
tried  the  same  plan  from  time  to  time.  The  French 
kings,  in  order  to  escape  from  the  power  of  the 
barons,  tried  mercenary  soldiers  in  their  wars.  But 
the  means  employed  was  always  physical;  the  pope 
was  the  only  potentate  who  relied  on  spiritual 
weapons,  and  when  it  came  to  a  final  test  of  power 
he  also  took  up  the  sword. 

But  the  maintenance  of  national  armies  required 
national  money;  and  the  kings  were  none  too  scru- 
pulous about  how  or  where  they  got  it.  It  made 
little  difference  to  the  working  population  whether 
it  was  king  or  baron  who  took  their  money.  But 
when  the  king  made  assessments  on  the  baron,  it 
was  another  matter.  And  he  had  a  way  of  making 
them  early  and  often,  and  then  spending  the  money 
in  ways  of  no  interest  to  the  baron.  So  in  England 
and  in  the  German  empire  spontaneous  movements 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  69 

arose  at  about  the  same  period  to  put  the  king  un- 
der restraint,  and  to  place  the  taxing  power  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  paid  the  taxes.  Thus  the  strug- 
gle for  constitutional  government  began. 

The  king  of  England  would,  for  a  payment  called 
"scutage,"  or  shield-money,  relieve  the  baronage 
from  the  annual  need  of  military  service;  he  would 
relieve  the  shires  and  the  towns  for  a  similar  payment 
called  "tallage."  Henry  II  had  introduced  the 
"scutage"  in  1181.  His  successor,  Richard,  had  in- 
creased the  amount  of  it;  and  after  him,  John  still 
farther  raised  the  rate,  and  added  thereto  fines, 
aids,  and  various  special  assessments.  Then  came 
the  united  resistance  of  the  barons,  and  their  de- 
mand, embodied  in  the  Great  Charter,  that  the  king 
should  yield  to  the  Great  Council  of  the  realm  the 
power  of  levying  taxes.  John  died  fighting  the 
charter,  and  the  regents  of  his  son,  who  signed  it 
immediately  after  his  death,  omitted  the  two  sec- 
tions which  gave  the  taxing  power  to  the  Great 
Council  and  provided  for  summoning  all  the 
tenants-in-chief  of  the  crown  to  the  meetings  of  this 
council.  These  two  sections  were  afterward  re- 
stored, but  only  after  half  a  century  of  blood-shed; 
so  stubborn  was  the  resistance  of  the  English  kings 
to  relinquishing  control  of  the  taxing  power.  They 
knew  that  the  economic  power  was  the  controlling 
power,  even  if  they  didn't  understand  it.  Green, 
in  his  "History  of  the  English  People,"  gives  recog- 
nition to  this  principle  in  the  following  passage: 


70  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

"The  Great  Charter  met  this  abuse  by  a  provision 
on  which  our  constitutional  system  rests.  'No 
scutage  or  aid  [other  than  the  customary  feudal  aids] 
shall  be  imposed  in  our  realm  sa;Ve  by  the  common 
council  of  the  realm/  .  .  .  even  the  baronage  seem 
to  have  been  startled  when  they  realized  the  ex- 
tent of  their  claim;  .  .  .  but  the  clause  brought 
home  to  the  nation  at  large  their  possession  of  a 
right  which  became  dearer  as  years  went  by.  More 
and  more  clearly  the  nation  discovered  that  in  these 
simple  words  lay  the  secret  of  political  power.  .  .  . 
It  was  the  establishment  of  this  right  which  estab- 
lished English  freedom."  The  "control  of  the 
purse,"  then,  by  the  English  people,  is  at  the  basis 
of  the  English  constitution.  This  "control  of  the 
purse"  was  the  weapon  with  which  the  English  peo- 
ple wrested  from  their  kings  all  those  limitations 
upon  the  royal  prerogative  which  create  a  constitu- 
tional government.  The  German  nation  never  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  their  kings  under  this  control,  al- 
though, as  said  before,  they  put  forth  a  correspond- 
ing effort  at  about  the  same  time;  their  constitution 
was  disregarded  by  their  monarchs,  and  the  result 
was  that  the  country  fell  into  an  incredible  number 
of  small  principalities,  each  trying  to  maintain  a 
royal  state,  each  supporting  a  court  on  the  taxes 
wrung  from  a  handful  of  serfs  and  keeping  the  coun- 
try, with  their  taxation,  their  tolls  at  every  bridge 
and  their  tariffs  at  every  boundary,  plunged  in  intol- 
erable poverty.  Nevertheless,  the  first  step  toward 
that  national  unity  which  finally  came  about  in 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  71 

the  nineteenth  century  was  an  economic  one :  namely, 
a  national  customs-union. 

In  France,  the  matter  shaped  up  a  little  differ- 
ently. Here,  the  king  called  in  the  burghers  from 
the  towns  to  sit  in  the  states-general  and  to  devise 
a  national  system  of  administration,  which  should 
keep  the  barons  from  taxing  the  people  out  of  ex- 
istence, on  their  several  dominions. 

In  the  primitive  days,  when  the  country  was 
covered  with  petty  tribes,  each  having  its  democrati- 
cal  government,  the  people  came  together  in  folk- 
mote  (or  witenagemote)  to  discuss  their  common  af- 
fairs, and  each  man  voted  "aye"  or  "no,"  on  the 
questions  that  were  brought  before  the  assembly. 
After  the  migrations  and  the  establishment  of  na- 
tional institutions,  the  free  men  still  met  to  regulate 
their  local  affairs,  and  the  folk-mote  became  the 
shire  or  county  court,  existing  along  side  of,  and  in 
spite  of,  the  newer  feudal  system.  When  at  length, 
the  English  kings  gave  up  trying  to  collect  revenues 
against  the  united  resistance  of  the  English  people, 
and  sent  out  their  summonses  to  all  the  tenants-in- 
chief  of  the  crown  to  assemble  to  vote  the  taxes,  the 
kings  sheriff  went  into  the  shire  court,  and  gave  pub- 
lic notice  to  every  man  of  that  station,  to  attend  the 
meeting.  But  this  was  most  unsatisfactory,  be- 
cause there  were  such  throngs  of  them,  though  there 
were  always  a  great  many  who  did  not  come.  Then 
those  who  did  come  spoke  only  for  themselves,  and 
it  was  difficult  to  hold  those  who  were  not  present 


72    .       ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

to  the  decision  of  those  who  were.  Besides,  they 
had  a  disagreeable  habit  of  coming  armed.  And 
the  lesser  nobles  always  voted  as  the  greater  nobles 
did,  and  the  king  had  no  chance  at  all  of  making 
his  will  prevail.  It  gave  him  the  feeling  of  stand- 
ing alone  against  the  nation  in  arms.  Many  of 
the  nobles  were  too  poor  to  undertake  the  journey 
and  to  live  at  considerable  expense  away  from  home ; 
and  their  property  yielded  only  a  trifling  sum  when 
the  tax  was  gathered.  And  after  they  had  voted 
the  tax,  the  king  had  to  dicker  separately  with  the 
common  people  of  the  shires  and  the  towns  for  their 
share  of  the  assessment.  These  practical  diffi- 
culties, all  together,  demanded  some  changes  in 
methods.  The  freemen  of  the  shires  were  growing 
prosperous  with  their  herds  and  their  crops;  and  the 
burghers  of  the  towns  were  waxing  rich  with  their 
commerce.  It  was  necessary  to  tax  these  sources  of 
wealth  for  the  royal  treasury,  and  it  was  very  de- 
sirable to  reduce  the  cost  of  collection,  as  well  as 
to  deprive  the  officers  of  the  crown  of  the  oppor- 
tunity for  graft  which  the  prevailing  system  afforded 
them.  So,  in  order  that  all  classes  of  the  popula- 
tion should  vote  their  own  tax,  and  so  be  willing  to 
pay  it  without  further  resistance,  all  classes  were 
summoned  to  the  Great  Council  of  the  realm.  But 
as  all  the  men  of  England  could  not  assemble  in 
one  place  for  this  purpose,  it  was  decided  that  the 
people  of  the  shires  should  elect  "two  discreet 
knights"  to  represent  them,  the  election  taking  place 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  73 

in  the  sessions  of  the  shire  courts.  The  people  of 
the  towns  were  at  the  same  time  bidden  to  elect  their 
representatives,  the  understanding  being  that  these 
representatives  had  authority  to  pledge  each  and  all 
of  their  constituents  to  pay  the  tax  which  they 
should  vote.  Thus  the  Great  Council  was  trans- 
formed into  the  Parliament  of  the  realm;  purely 
for  economic  reasons. 

At  the  same  time,  that  purely  democratical  gov- 
ernment, which  had  survived  in  England,  along- 
side of  the  feudal  system,  in  relation  to  local  mat- 
ters, was  transformed  into  representative  govern- 
ment, in  relation  to  national  matters.  We  have  a 
habit  of  confusing  representative  government  with 
democratical  government,  in  a  manner  which  may 
be  flattering  to  our  vanity  as  being  "free  and  brave," 
but  which  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  very  inaccurate. 
Hallam,  in  his  "History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  s^s : 
"The  principle  of  representation,  .  .  .  can  hardly 
be  unknown  to  any  government  not  purely  demo- 
cratical" ;  thus  clearly  recognizing  the  difFerence  be- 
tween democratic  and  representative  government. 
But  the  English  speaking  peoples  have  come  to  al- 
most worship  representation  in  government,  as  if  it 
were  the  very  essence  of  democracy  itself;  whereas, 
as  we  have  seen,  it  was  simply  a  makeshift,  whereby 
the  people  retained  an  indirect  voice  in  the  govern- 
ment, at  a  time  when  it  became  impossible  to  retain 
a  direct  voice,  for  want  of  facilities. 

But  for  a  long  time  there  was  great  difficulty  in 


74  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

getting  representatives  elected,  and  in  getting  those 
thus  chosen  to  attend  the  sessions  of  parliament. 
It  cost  something  to  travel  and  to  live  away  from 
home,  and  the  delegate  had  to  neglect  his  own  busi- 
ness while  thus  engaged  upon  the  public  affairs. 
The  shires  were  required  to  pay  four  shillings  a  day, 
and  the  towns  two  shillings,  to  their  delegates  in 
parliament;  and  many  of  them  refused  to  incur  this 
expense,  so  that  it  sometimes  happened  that  the 
sheriffs  of  populous  counties  were  unable  to  report 
the  election  of  representatives  from  more  than  one 
borough.  The  gradual  establishment  of  a  national 
system  of  government  was  suppressing  private  wars, 
and  bringing  the  people  peace  and  security  under 
which  they  were  entering  upon  a  period  of  pros- 
perity as  great  as  any  England  has  ever  seen,  and 
including  all  the  population  more  truly  than  has 
ever  since  been  the  case.  Yet  men  were  very  in- 
disposed to  leave  the  manor-hall,  the  counting-house 
or  the  plough,  in  order  to  support  the  public  order; 
and  they  did  not  seem  to  comprehend  the  oppor- 
tunity which  they  had  to  defend  their  own  rights  or 
promote  their  own  interests  under  it.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  very  fact  of  a  nation  was  a 
new  thing  to  the  race  mind.  The  parliament,  sit- 
ting at  Windsor  or  at  Oxford,  seemed  very  remote; 
the  king's  law  and  the  king's  justice  appeared  to 
the  unaccustomed  mind  to  be  a  very  lofty  matter, 
and  so  great  and  powerful  as  not  to  be  in  any  way 
dependent  upon  the  common  man.     And  besides. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  75 

every  freeman  bore  his  share  in  the  shire  courts,  the 
immediate  machinery  of  local  self-government. 

Still,  the  theory  that  the  people  had  a  right  to 
regulate  the  taxes  was  established.  And  no  sooner 
did  they  begin  to  meet  for  that  purpose,  than  they 
proceeded  to  discuss  other  questions  and  to  demand 
redress  in  other  matters.  At  first,  parliament  em- 
ployed the  system  of  voting  the  taxes,  and  afterward 
humbly  praying  the  king  to  make  such  laws  as  they 
decided  they  needed.  After  receiving  the  royal 
promise  they  would  confidingly  go  home  to  wait  for 
the  law.  But  it  didn't  take  long  to  learn  that  a 
king's  promise  was  of  very  little  value  after  the 
taxes  had  been  granted.  Then  the  system  was  re- 
versed. Thereafter,  parliament  passed  its  own  laws, 
and  after  they  were  signed  by  the  king,  it  voted  the 
taxes;  and  to  this  day,  the  voting  of  the  "budget" 
comes  last  on  the  program  of  a  parliamentary  ses- 
sion as  a  means  of  keeping  the  "power  of  the  purse" 
in  the  control  of  the  people,  until  their  demands 
have  received  respectful  attention. 

But  the  English  kings  were  very  much  averse  to 
submitting  to  this  control,  and  so,  repeatedly,  they 
tried  the  plan  of  raising  money  by  the  old  means, 
without  calling  parliament  together.  Yet  in  the 
end,  they  found  they  could  not  maintain  the  throne 
and  carry  on  their  wars,  without  the  consent  and 
help  of  the  people;  and  parliament  passed  an  act 
whereby  it  met  automatically,  at  stated  periods, 
without  the  summons  of  the  king.     Thus  point  by 


76  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

point,  slowly  and  laboriously,  the  English  people 
wrested  from  the  English  sovereigns  those  limita- 
tions upon  the  royal  prerogative  which  constitute 
what  is  called  "English  freedom"  to-day,  by  the 
"power  of  the  purse";  the  power  to  give  or  to 
withhold  the  economic  support  without  which  the 
throne  could  not  stand. 

While  this  two-fold  struggle  on  the  part  of  the 
nation  to  control  its  monarchs,  and  on  the  part  of 
the  rulers  to  control  the  people,  went  forward  with 
varying  success  in  the  different  nations,  another 
struggle  was  proceeding  in  the  towns.  As  said 
earlier  in  this  chapter,  the  first  town-guilds  every- 
where developed  into  merchant-guilds,  including 
among  their  number  those  engaged  in  the  larger  en- 
terprises of  commerce  and  finance.  These  guilds 
set  up  the  internal  administrative  machinery  of  the 
towns,  as  they  passed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
feudal  lords,  placed  themselves  in  charge,  arranged 
matters  to  their  own  advantage  and  developed  first 
class  oligarchies,  on  a  municipal  scale.  It  was  the 
guilds  that  treated  with  the  suzerain  in  the  first 
place,  purchasing  the  right  to  administer  their  own 
justice,  levy  their  own  taxes  and  regulate  their  own 
commerce;  buying  immunity  from  tariffs,  tolls,  and 
market  charges  from  lord,  bishop  or  king.  No  step 
was  gained  that  was  not  paid  for  in  cash.  And 
there  is  more  than  one  record,  especially  in  France, 
of  cases  in  which  the  immunities  purchased  by  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  77 

"communes,"  or  towns,  for  coin  of  the  realm,  were 
respected  no  longer  than  it  took  the  over-lord  to 
spend  the  money  with  which  they  were  paid  for. 
And  so  it  was  often  only  after  repeated  purchase  of 
their  freedom,  that  the  towns  were  secure  in  their 
immunities,  until  the  time  came  when  the  national 
governments  absorbed  them  into  the  larger  system. 

During  the  period  of  free  municipalities,  the 
church  was  in  its  heyday;  and  then,  if  ever,  super- 
natural power  should  have  exhibited  itself  to  ad- 
vantage, in  decreasing  the  freedom  of  towns,  the 
rise  or  fall  of  kings.  Yet  nowhere  do  we  find  the 
fate  of  populations  or  of  potentates  following  any 
other  power  than  the  "power  of  the  purse,"  or  ris- 
ing at  any  time  when  the  economic  processes  of  pro- 
duction and  exchange  were  on  the  wane. 

Each  commercial  city  had  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  separate  nationality.  Inter-munic- 
ipal trade  was  foreign  trade.  It  was  the  policy  to 
monopolize  commerce  as  far  as  possible,  foreign 
houses  were  allowed  to  do  business  in  the  town  only 
under  strict  regulations,  and  foreign  traders  were  per- 
mitted to  remain  only  for  a  specified  number  of 
days.  But  the  merchants  of  all  towns,  as  a  class, 
found  it  necessary  to  unite  for  certain  purposes,  be- 
cause the  national  governments  were  not  then 
sufficiently  developed  to  perform  some  of  the  func- 
tions which  are  required  by  a  commercial  society. 
Local  co-operation  among  towns  for  the  improve- 


78  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

ment  and  protection  of  the  highways,  and  for  the 
abolition  of  tolls  and  charges,  led  to  wider  combina- 
tions, and  finally  to  the  formation  of  the  Hanseatic 
League.  This  league,  with  its  capital  at  Lubec,  and 
embracing  all  the  commercial  cities  of  northern 
Europe,  controlled  and  protected  commerce  by  land 
and  sea,  levied  taxes,  maintained  armies  and  navies, 
established  weights  and  measures,  coined  money, 
kept  embassies  at  courts,  made  treaties  with  mon- 
archs,  loaned  money  to  princes,  made  war  on  na- 
tions, and  dictated  the  succession  of  kings.^ 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  strong  possibility  of 
the  establishment  of  republican  government  by  the 
consolidation  of  this  league  of  commercial  cities,  at 
the  time  of  their  greatest  prosperity  and  power; 
for  they  were  really  going  far  beyond  the  monarchies 
of  the  time  in  some  of  the  functions  of  government. 
But  the  mutual  jealousies  and  rivalries  between  the 
cities  and  the  efforts  of  each  town  to  establish  mo- 
nopolies against  every  other  town,  prevented  them 
from  developing  the  necessary  solidarity.  The  bulk 
of  the  working  capital  of  the  period  was  invested  in 
its  commerce,  and  it  was  the  consolidation  and  flow 
of  this  capital  through  definite  channels  that  gave 
this  enormous  economic  and  political  power  to  those 
in  control  of  it. 

The  discovery  of  a  sailing  route  to  India  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century  diverted  much  of  the 
trade  which  had  hitherto  passed  through  the  cities 

2  Lewis's   History   of   Germany. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  79 

of  north  Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  and  their 
power  began  to  decline.  At  the  same  time,  the 
feudal  system  had  run  its  course  and  the  general 
development  of  civilization  was  such  that  the  na- 
tional governments  were  able  to  extend  their  con- 
trol over  the  cities  by  a  uniform  system,  and  the 
opportunity  for  the  establishment  of  a  federal  gov- 
ernment by  the  cities  was  past. 

In  the  meantime,  the  craftsmen  of  the  towns,  be- 
ing excluded  from  the  merchant-guilds,  from  the 
franchise  of  the  towns  and  participation  in  the  city 
governments,  formed  guilds  of  their  own  on  the 
lines  of  their  separate  crafts.  They  controlled  ap- 
prenticeships, standardized  tools,  limited  output, 
regulated  working  hours;  and  in  general,  tried  to 
monopolize  industry  and  industrial  opportunity,  as 
the  merchant-guilds  tried  to  monopolize  commerce 
and  commercial  opportunity.  At  the  same  time, 
they  raised  the  standard  of  living  and  the  social 
culture  of  their  class  far  above  that  of  the  unskilled 
laborer.  Still  they  were  unable  to  withstand  the 
tyrannies  of  the  city  aristocracy,  the  merchant 
oligarchies.  But  after  a  certain  period  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  separate  craft-guilds,  a  universal 
movement  for  the  consolidation  of  the  craft-guilds 
in  the  separate  cities  manifested  itself,  and  the 
crafts  in  every  town  formed  "one  big  union,"  for 
the  purpose  of  advancing  the  position  of  the  crafts- 
man class  in  the  civic  and  social  life.  Then  came 
a  period  of  strife  between  the  classes,  amounting. 


8o  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

in  the  case  of  many  cities,  to  a  long  period  of  civil 
wars.  The  craftsmen  raised  armies  of  their  own, 
and  demanded  a  share  in  the  city  governments  at 
the  point  of  the  sword.  And  everywhere  they  won, 
in  some  degree,  in  some  places  even  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  old  city  oligarchies.  Then  follows  a  period 
of  federation  between  the  industrial  cities,  on  a 
basis  of  the  craft-guilds.  As  northern  Europe  was 
the  strong-hold  of  the  merchant-league,  so  southern 
Europe  was  that  of  the  craftsman-league;  though 
the  latter  never  developed  the  same  measure  of  eco- 
nomic or  political  strength.  But  the  league  of  the 
industrial  cities  waged  so  valiant  a  war  against  the 
princes  of  southern  Europe,  that  the  latter  had  great 
difficulty  in  putting  them  down. 

The  cities  of  the  south  seemed  for  a  time,  like  the 
cities  of  the  north,  almost  to  be  strong  enough  to 
establish  a  federal  government.  But  the  moment 
passed  without  quite  the  necessary  exhibition  of 
solidarity  on  the  part  of  the  industrial  class,  and  the 
opportunity  was  lost.  The  south  German  league 
fell  apart  for  the  same  reason  that  had  set  a  limit  to 
the  development  of  the  Hanseatic  league:  the  ri- 
valries and  exclusions  of  its  members.  The  mutual 
jealousies  of  the  German  princes  prevented  them 
uniting  to  form  a  national  government;  but  their 
recognition  of  their  class  interests  impelled  them  to 
unite  for  the  crushing  of  every  attempt  of  the  peo- 
ple to  gain  their  freedom.  The  king  of  France  sum- 
moned the  towns  in  his  dominion  to  send  representa- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  8i 

tives  to  the  "states  general"  of  the  realm,  where  a 
uniform  system  for  the  government  of  all  towns  was 
organized,  and  so  put  an  end  to  the  old  type  of  free 
cities  and  city  leagues  in  that  country.  Thus  was 
the  "divine  right  of  kings"  established,  by  a  very 
narrow  margin. 

The  political  vigor  and  aspirations  of  the  cities 
had  been  born  of  their  economic  prosperity.  In 
France  and  England  these  aspirations  were  in  a 
measure,  and  after  a  manner,  gratified  by  their  being 
absorbed  into  the  nation;  in  Germany  they  were 
suppressed  by  the  absolutism  of  a  multitude  of  petty 
kings  and  princes.  Before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century  they  had  ceased  to  be  of  separate  political 
importance.  And  three  centuries  were  to  pass,  dur- 
ing which  time  their  prosperity  was  to  be  destroyed 
by  the  warfare  of  their  kings,  and  they  were  to 
drench  the  soil  with  the  blood  of  millions,  before 
the  people  were  to  renew  the  struggle  for  freedom, 
this  time  on  a  national  scale. 

The  economic  importance  of  the  church  had  de- 
clined with  the  general  revival  of  industry  and  com- 
merce, but  she  had  enjoyed  a  period  of  tremendous 
political  power,  owing  to  the  fact  that  she  possessed 
a  united  international  organization,  and  the  super- 
stition of  the  age  was  so  great  that  no  ruler  could 
maintain  his  position  against  either  his  people  or  his 
enemies,  if  the  excommunication  and  the  ban  of  the 
church  was  pronounced  against  him.  The  principle 
of  poverty  had  been  completely  forgotten;  and  she 


82  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

had  enriched  herself  by  every  means  in  her  power, 
until  she  had  come  into  possession  of  one  seventh  of 
all  the  landed  property  in  Europe.  Her  moral  and 
spiritual  degeneracy  had  become  so  flagrant  that  she 
no  longer  commanded  the  confidence  or  respect  of 
thoughtful  and  decent  people ;  yet  her  possession  of 
so  much  property  gave  her  tremendous  political  im- 
portance. Founded  on  the  principle  of  nonresist- 
ance,  the  church  had  become  a  military  power.  Her 
bishops  and  abbots  mingled  the  accoutrements  of 
war  indiscriminately  with  the  vestments  of  their 
holy  office,  and  in  this  guise  led  their  armies  to  bat- 
tle. And  it  was  fortunate  for  Europe  that,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  there  was  a  western  power  which 
possessed  an  international  organization,  which  could 
appeal  to  the  universal  motive  of  superstitious 
fanaticism,  and  which  could  call  to  arms  the  men  of 
Europe,  of  high  and  low  degree.  For  there  was  a 
western  migration  of  Saracen  tribes,  from  central 
Asia,  on.  They  had  conquered  the  Arabs,  taken 
possession  of  Jerusalem,  and  threatened  the  Euro- 
pean emperor  of  Constantinople.  Likewise  they  in- 
sulted the  Christians  doing  homage  at  the  holy  sepul- 
chre in  Jerusalem.  If  they  had  been  permitted  they 
would  probably  have  streamed  westward  into  Eu- 
rope, and  the  struggle  between  Saracen  and  Cau- 
casian for  the  possession  of  the  continent  would  have 
taken  place  on  European  soil.  The  insults  to  the 
Christians,  however,  and  the  danger  to  the  throne 
of  the  catholic  emperor  of  the  east,  forestalled  this 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  83 

dire  event.  The  pope  issued  a  call  to  arms.  Peter 
the  Hermit,  and  many  other  pious  men,  preached  a 
crusade  throughout  Europe;  and  the  result  was  a 
general  outpouring  of  the  hermits,  the  robber- 
knights,  and  all  the  otherwise  unemployed  and 
criminally  employed  elements.  These  trooped 
across  Europe  or  the  Mediterranean,  and  not  only 
absorbed  the  attention  of  the  invaders,  but  actually 
captured  Jerusalem  and  established  a  government 
there  for  a  time.  Later,  better  elements  of  the  pop- 
ulation took  up  the  cause,  and  for  three  centuries, 
the  men  of  Europe  continued  to  dedicate  their  lives 
in  large  numbers,  to  the  enterprise  of  reconquering 
the  east.  They  did  not  succeed  in  holding  any  of 
the  country  in  the  end,  but  the  Turks  never  reached 
very  far  east,  or  north,  in  Europe.  And  there  were 
many  incidental  results  of  extreme  importance,  to 
European  civilization.  From  the  first,  commerce 
and  industry  were  benefited  in  two  ways:  The 
highways  were  cleared  of  the  robber-barons  who  had 
afflicted  the  country  as  a  pestilence.  And  a  trade 
sprang  up  between  the  east  and  the  Italian  cities 
along  the  highway  of  the  Mediterranean,  which 
brought  to  them  an  era  of  unprecedented  prosperity. 
Moreover,  the  people  of  the  east  had  the  better  of 
Europeans  in  the  arts  of  civilization  at  that  time. 
Their  religious  ideas  and  practices  were  in  some  re- 
spects much  in  advance,  knowledge  was  more  de- 
veloped among  them,  and  European  culture  received 
a  tremendous  impulse  from  its  contact  with  the 


84  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

despised  and  execrated  east.  And  not  the  least  of 
these  results  was,  that  the  Christians  began  to  ask 
questions  about  their  own  religion,  to  inquire  in 
what  way  it  was  superior,  and  why  they  were  so 
zealous  about  it.  From  this  time  heresy  began  to 
raise  its  head,  the  reformation  followed,  the  church 
lands  were  secularized,  and  a  period  of  decline  in 
the  position  of  the  church  was  initiated  which  has 
not  ceased  to  the  present  day. 

Over  a  million  men  are  said  by  contemporary 
writers  to  have  perished  in  the  first  crusade;  and 
from  that  time,  for  two  centuries,  besides  the  seven 
principal  crusades,  there  was  hardly  a  time  when 
larger  or  smaller  parties  of  men  were  not  journey- 
ing toward  the  east,  bent  on  the  same  errand.  Dur- 
ing the  same  period  there  was  never  any  lack  of 
wars,  nor  any  cessation  of  the  shedding  of  blood 
on  European  soil.  Yet,  strange  as  it  seems  on  first 
thought,  there  was  never  a  time  when  the  female 
population  of  Europe  was  sufficiently  in  excess  of 
the  male  population  to  excite  the  comment  of  con- 
temporary writers  or  engage  the  attention  of  the 
modem  historian.  The  reason  why  the  ceaseless 
wholesale  slaughter  of  men  did  not  result  in  an 
excess  of  female  population  does  not  appear  on  the 
pages  of  the  historical  writers.  Special  research  is 
required  to  discover  it.  Nevertheless,  enough  of  the 
records  are  accessible  to  furnish  a  perfectly  clear 
explanation.  And  that  explanation  is  fraught  with 
a  greater  horror  than  the  history  of  wars  and  cru- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  85 

sades;  namely,  the  horror  of  the  witchcraft  perse- 
cutions. 

We  owe  to  Karl  Pearson  the  discovery  that  the 
witch  of  medieval  Europe  was  originally  none  other 
than  the  wise  woman  or  Saga,  of  the  primitive 
tribes.  And  Dr.  Pearson  produces  early  documents 
which  prove  his  point.  When  the  earliest  mission- 
aries of  the  Christian  church  went  northward  to  the 
country  of  the  barbarians  to  establish  their  missions 
and  introduce  the  government  of  the  Roman  church, 
they  found  that  every  group  of  the  heathen  had  their 
"wise  woman,"  who  was  not  only  friend,  philosopher 
and  guide  to  the  people,  but  their  physician  also. 
She  was  a  person  of  great  influence  and  authority 
among  them;  and  she  interfered  with  the  plans  of 
the  priest.  And  she  was  such  a  universal  institu- 
tion among  the  folk,  and  was  so  deeply  rooted  in 
the  customs  of  the  people  that  heroic  measures  were 
required  to  get  rid  of  her,  and  clear  the  way  for  the 
unhindered  authority  of  the  church.  Moreover, 
she  was  the  repository  of  the  tribal  lore,  and  as  such, 
had  much  knowledge  of  the  healing  power  of  plants 
and  how  to  use  them.  To  the  priest,  entirely  ig- 
norant of  such  matters,  this  seemed  nothing  less  than 
magic;  black  magic.  In  short,  she  might  be  a  witch, 
according  to  the  old  Hebrew  description.  So,  in 
the  time  of  Augustine,  in  the  fourth  century,  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  discussion  about  witches,  in  the 
church,  and  that  Saint  gave  his  authority  to  the 
belief  in  them.     And  the  old  Mosaic  law:     "Thou 


86  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live"  was  quoted  as  au- 
thority. There  are  long  blank  periods  in  the  rec- 
ords; but  in  the  year  799  the  witchcraft  business 
had  progressed  so  far  that  the  council  of  Salsburg 
ordered  that  the  torture  be  used  to  secure  evidence 
against  witches.  Every  diocese  in  Europe  had  its 
committee  of  "witch  inquisitors,"  whose  business  it 
was  to  make  complaints  against , persons  whom  they 
believed  to  be  bewitched.  And,  in  case  these  failed 
of  their  duty  toward  their  neighbors,  the  church  em- 
ployed a  body  of  "Traveling  Witch  Inquisitors,"  to 
go  from  place  to  place,  lodging  complaints  against 
those  whom  they  might  choose  for  their  victims.  If 
the  witch  was  possessed  of  property,  half  of  this 
property  went  to  the  prosecutor,  and  the  other  half 
to  the  judge,  in  case  of  conviction.  As  both  these 
worthies  were  church  officers,  and,  being  priests,  were 
unmarried,  so  that  their  property  went  to  the  church 
on  their  death,  it  becomes  clear  how  so  much  as  one 
seventh  of  all  the  territory  of  Europe  came  to  be  in 
possession  of  the  church. 

A  witch  was  said  to  be  a  woman  who  had  sold 
herself  to  the  devil,  and  had  become  possessed  of 
diabolical  knowledge  in  the  transaction.  Was  a 
crop  blighted — was  there  a  disease  among  the  cat- 
tle— did  a  woman  have  a  child  still-born  ^  A  witch 
had  done  it;  she  must  be  sought  out  and  burned.  In 
Scotland  a  woman  was  burned  for  having  caused  a 
storm  by  taking  off  her  stockings.     Did  a  woman 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  87 

refuse  submission  to  her  husband — did  one  scoff  at 
the  miracles  of  a  priest*?     She  was  a  witch. 

The  French  historian,  Michelet,  was  probably 
more  familiar  with  the  records  of  the  witch  prose- 
cutions than  any  one  else,  and  referring  to  a  brief 
period  in  their  history  he  says:  "They  were  tried 
in  a  lump;  they  were  condemned  by  a  single  word. 
Never  had  there  been  such  a  wastefulness  of  human 
life.  Not  to  speak  of  Spain,  that  classic  land  of 
the  fagot,  where  Moor  and  Jew  were  always  ac- 
companied by  the  witch,  there  were  burnt  at  Treves 
seven  thousand,  and  I  know  not  how  many  at 
Toulouse;  five  hundred  at  Geneva  in  three  months 
of  1513;  at  Wurtzburg  eight  hundred,  almost  in 
one  batch,  and  fifteen  hundred  at  Bamburg;  these 
two  latter  being  very  small  bishoprics.  ...  In  the 
Wurtzburg  list  I  find  one  wizard  a  school  boy, 
eleven  years  old ;  a  witch  of  fifteen ;  and  at  Bayonne 
two,  infernally  beautiful,  of  seventeen  years." 

Thus  the  theory  that  the  wise  woman  was  a  witch 
having  been  accepted,  the  fathers  of  the  church  found 
no  difficulty  in  extending  it  to  any  woman,  or  even 
to  children.  Matilda  Jocelyn  Gage  says  that  "it 
is  computed  from  historical  records  that  nine  millions 
of  persons  were  put  to  death  for  witchcraft  after 
1484,  or  during  a  period  of  three  hundred  years." 
["Woman,  Church  and  State;"  p.  247.]  We  do 
not  know  whether  the  computation  is  correct.  But 
when  one  considers  that  this  witch-burning  blackened 


88  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  sky  of  every  bishopric  in  Europe,  and  multiplies 
the  numbers  of  the  victims  given  in  the  records 
quoted  above  by  any  probable  number  of  bishoprics, 
the  result  is  appalling.  The  first  witchbuming 
probably  could  not  be  located  as  to  date,  but  it  was 
not  until  1672  that  trials  for  witchcraft  were  pro- 
hibited in  France,  and  not  until  1784  that  the  burn- 
ing and  hanging  of  witches  was  abolished  in  Eng- 
land. From  the  council  of  Salsburg  to  1784  is, 
in  round  numbers,  a  thousand  years;  and  at  the 
earlier  date,  the  business  was  in  full  swing;  it  there- 
fore becomes  plain  that  the  number  of  these  ecclesi- 
astical murders  is  altogether  beyond  computation  or 
comprehension.  But  at  any  rate,  the  question  of 
what  became  of  the  women  while  the  men  were  being 
sacrificed  on  the  field  of  battle,  is  disposed  of.  And 
the  economic  motive  for  it  is  made  sufficiently  clear. 
Wherever  we  read  of  men,  during  this  period,  it 
is  in  connection  with  some  organized  body,  either 
church,  state,  or  guild.  But  we  do  not  read  of 
women  at  all.  One  would  think  that  the  entire  pop- 
ulation was  of  the  male  sex,  from  reading  the  pages 
of  written  history.  The  bearing  and  rearing  of  all 
these  millions  of  victims  for  the  torch  and  for  the 
sword  was  certainly  a  task  of  heroic  magnitude; 
yet  because  each  woman  labored,  bearing  and  rear- 
ing her  dozen  or  so  of  children,  in  the  "sacred  ob- 
scurity" of  her  own  home,  the  contribution  of 
women  to  life  has  been  treated  as  quite  a  negligible 
one.     But  women  should,   at  last,   learn  a  lesson 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  89 

from  these  thousands  of  years  of  the  butchery  of 
their  children  to  satisfy  the  egotism  of  the  masters 
of  their  masters.  This  lesson  is  that  "sacred  ob- 
scurity" never  yet  promoted  or  protected  the  in- 
terests of  any  living  being.  And  it  should  be  plain 
to  all,  that  wherever  man  has  made  any  temporary 
advance  he  has  done  so  through  the  organization 
of  his  class  to  defend  the  interests  of  his  class. 
And  wherever  he  has  lost  the  ground  so  gained, 
he  has  lost  it  through  the  neglect  of  his  class 
organization.  Woman  has  been  the  easy  prey 
of  every  form  of  aggression  and  exploitation,  be- 
cause she  has  had  no  organization  to  protect  her  as 
an  individual.  The  maxim  "divide ^and  rule"  has 
received  its  most  brilliant  exemplification  in  the 
case  of  woman.  But  her  ruler  has  suffered  as  much 
as  she  has  for  his  rule. 

Under  the  revival  of  commerce  and  industry  dur- 
ing this  period,  when  the  members  of  the  family 
worked  in  the  home  producing  goods  for  the  market, 
the  patriarchal  basis  of  the  family  appears  again  as 
its  vital  principle.  The  husband  and  father  owned 
all  the  product  of  the  toil  of  all  the  family ;  even  as 
in  the  prime  of  the  patriarchal  institution.  If  they 
worked  outside  the  family,  their  wages  were  his. 
His  patriarchal  prerogative  was  still  so  far  intact 
that  he  was  not  accountable  for  maintaining  any 
standard  of  comfort  in  the  home,  in  return  for  the 
economic  values  he  took  out  of  the  family. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  feudal  period  we  saw  that 


go  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  knight  in  armor  was  the  fighting-man  of  the  sys- 
tem. His  political  power  and  his  social  prestige 
rested  on  his  prowess  with  the  lance  and  sword,  in 
defense  of  his  lord  himself  and  the  king.  But  later, 
when  the  king  wanted  to  be  rid  of  him,  he  intro- 
duced the  yeoman  with  his  mighty  long-bow  on  the 
field  of  battle  and  the  knight  was  undone.  Then 
the  crusaders  brought  back  with  them  from  the  east 
the  knowledge  of  gunpowder;  when  they  "shot  little 
balls  with  thunder"  to  scare  the  horses,  on  the  battle 
field;  and  the  knight  found  himself  still  further  to 
the  bad.  Presently  cannon  were  made  with  which 
the  castle  walls  of  lord  and  prince  were  battered 
down ;  and  then  the  knight  became  utterly  ridiculous, 
with  his  tilting  and  his  capering.  Add  to  this  that 
the  money  power  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  the 
land-owning  class  to  those  of  the  trading  class,  and 
even  to  the  united  craftsmen ;  and  it  is  apparent  that 
a  social  revolution  had  taken  place.  At  the  same 
time,  the  personal  quality  and  chivalric  character  of 
the  nobility  had  deteriorated  until  they  had  lost  all 
their  power  and  charm,  and  had  sunk  again  into  a 
state  that  some  historians  have  called  semi-barbar- 
ism. The  knight  had  sunk  to  the  level  of  a  poor 
imitation  of  his  former  self,  affecting  a  stiff  and  ri- 
diculous formality  of  manner,  and  an  ostentatious 
contempt  for  women.  Meantime,  with  economic 
comfort,  leisure  and  education,  the  burgher  class  had 
risen  to  the  front  rank  of  culture. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  period  the  laboring  popu- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  91 

lation  had  been  bound  to  the  land;  but  with  the  de- 
cline of  the  feudal  system,  they  were  freed  and  many 
of  them  went  to  the  towns  to  work.  They  arrived 
there  without  money  and  without  a  trade  and  with- 
out tools.  The  laborer  had  to  learn  to  work  and 
he  had  to  make  a  bargain  with  some  one  who  owned 
tools,  to  work  for  him  and  divide  the  profits.  There 
were  many  thousands  of  them  and  they  all  had  to 
fight  against  the  guilds  for  a  chance  to  learn  to  work, 
and  to  compete  with  each  other  to  get  a  chance  to 
work,  for  the  man  who  owned  the  tools.  There 
were  many  employers,  and  they  were  all  trying  to 
get  the  most  men  to  work  the  cheapest,  and  the  com- 
petition between  employers  tended  to  keep  wages 
up.  And  the  competition  between  the  workers 
tended  to  keep  them  down.  But  the  tools  were 
simple  and  easy  to  make,  or  cheap  to  buy,  so,  after 
a  man  had  learned  to  work,  it  was  easily  possible 
for  him  to  acquire  his  own  tools  and  enter  the  class 
of  self-employers.  Then  he  would  own  all  that 
he  produced — wouldn't  have  to  divide  up  with  any- 
body. 

We  saw  that  in  primitive  society,  industry  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  women,  that  they  worked  to- 
gether in  a  free  community  and  that  inventions  made 
a  very  substantial  beginning.  The  foundation  for 
subsequent  progress  in  the  mechanical  arts  was  well 
laid.  Then  a  social  revolution  came  about,  after 
which  all  work  was  done  by  slaves;  and  inventions 
stood  practically  still  during  the  era  of  slave  pro- 


92  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

duction.  But  now,  when  men  were  working  in 
freedom,  inventions  began  to  appear  again.  The 
tool  soon  increased  in  complexity  and  effectiveness, 
when  it  also  increased  in  price  and  was  no  longer 
so  easy  to  possess.  Also  men  began  to  specialize 
in  industry,  each  man  making  only  a  part  of  the 
finished  product;  for  this  method  was  found  to  in- 
crease the  efficiency  of  the  man  and  to  augment  the 
amount  of  his  day's  output.  But  under  this  sys- 
tem numbers  of  men  have  to  work  together.  The 
owner  and  employer  assembled  the  more  complex 
tools  now,  in  his  factory,  and  here  the  tools  and  the 
workers  developed  together  on  specialized  lines. 
After  this,  it  was  necessary  to  produce  these  things 
by  the  factory  system,  because  the  individual  worker 
could  no  longer  compete  with  the  factory  product  in 
the  market.  Development  went  on  in  this  way  until 
the  tool  became  a  machine,  and  the  worker  merely 
an  operative. 

The  inventions  and  discoveries  made  at  this  time 
are  too  numerous  to  be  named,  but  the  two  of  most 
importance,  those  which  probably  did  most  to  liber- 
ate society  into  an  entirely  new  field  and  to  mark  an 
epoch  in  human  affairs,  are  the  invention  of  a  proc- 
ess for  making  paper,  and  the  art  of  printing. 
Hitherto,  books  had  to  be  written  by  hand,  and  on 
parchment,  the  expensiveness  of  which  was  a  se- 
rious drawback  to  the  spread  of  knowledge.  These 
two  inventions  came  nearly  at  the  same  time,  about 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.     The  time  was 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  93 

ripe  for  them.  In  the  opulent  and  luxurious  cities 
of  Italy,  whose  commerce  and  culture  had  been  so 
stimulated  by  the  crusades,  the  renascence  of  the  lit- 
erature and  learning  of  early  civilization  was  already 
taking  place.  The  languages  of  Europe  were 
emerging  from  the  jargon  of  Latin  and  barbarian 
dialects,  and  entering  upon  a  period  of  literary  de- 
velopment. The  writings  of  the  ancients  were 
printed  and  had  a  wide  distribution,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  the  church  to  suppress  them.  The  uni- 
versities of  Paris,  Bologna  and  Oxford  were 
founded,  and  many  others  soon  followed.  A  pas- 
sion for  education  seized  upon  the  people  and  the 
youth  of  Europe  thronged  to  the  universities.  The 
knowledge  dispensed  there  was  still  astonishingly 
meager,  but  this  was  atoned  for  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  students. 

Early  in  the  feudal  period,  when  reading  and 
writing  became  general  among  the  landed  class,  and 
education  was  spread  by  private  means,  the  women 
in  the  castles  of  the  land  received  the  same  educa- 
tion as  the  men,  and  this  had  everything  to  do  with 
the  worshipful  attitude  of  chivalry  toward  women. 
But  now  that  the  universities  became  the  means  of 
spreading  education,  a  difference  was  immediately 
created  in  the  intellectual  development  of  the  sexes, 
and  at  the  same  time,  a  studied  contempt  for  women 
made  its  appearance.  The  roystering  turbulent  life 
of  the  universities  was  not  suited  to  women,  and 
even  where  they  were  not  excluded  by  law,  they 


94  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

were  debarred  by  the  nature  of  the  situation.  So, 
while  the  establishment  of  the  universities  was  in 
one  way  an  advantage  to  civilization,  in  another 
way  it  was  a  hindrance  to  it,  by  creating  an  artifi- 
cial difference  between  the  sexes,  and  making  way 
for  a  long  train  of  those  evils  which  have  always 
followed  when  any  one  class  is  placed  at  a  disad- 
vantage before  another  class. 

We  saw,  in  the  chapter  on  early  civilization,  that 
the  position  of  woman  in  society  is  accurately  re- 
flected in  her  position  among  the  deities;  that  when 
woman  was  the  head  of  the  social  unit,  the  principal 
gods  were  of  the  female  sex.  We  saw  also  that 
after  the  mundane  revolution,  by  which  man  became 
the  head  of  the  social  unit,  a  corresponding  change 
had  taken  place  in  the  society  of  the  heavens. 
At  the  time  of  Christ,  the  Roman  jurisconsults  were 
doing  all  they  could,  by  the  construction  of  the  laws, 
to  emancipate  woman  from  her  ancient  slavery, 
but  the  people,  still  devoted  to  religion,  resented 
these  changes  as  being  contrary  to  morality  and 
the  will  of  the  gods.  The  teachings  of  Christ  were 
wholly  in  favor  of  the  freedom  and  equality  of 
woman;  and  the  church  at  first  adopted  this  position; 
but  very  soon,  under  the  influence  of  the  apostle 
Paul,  it  reversed  this  position  and  deprived  woman 
of  her  rights  and  privileges  in  the  organization. 
How  far  this  ostracism  was  carried  and  how  con- 
temptible the  position  of  woman  became  under  the 
domination  of  the  church  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  95 

latter  established  the  worship  of  a  "holy  trinity" 
which  was  entirely  male.  Mary,  mother  of  Christ, 
was  placed  beside  the  trinity  in  the  worship  of  the 
church,  by  an  act  of  the  council  of  Claremont,  in 
the  year  1066;  but  only  after  the  dogma  of  the 
"immaculate  conception"  had  been  established. 
But  the  worship  of  one  woman  in  that  she  is  differ- 
ent from  other  women  is  not  the  same  thing  as  the 
worship  of  woman,  but  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  special 
refinement  of  denunciation.  The  means  by  which 
the  legal  subjection  of  woman  to  the  individual  man 
was  accomplished,  consisted  in  the  revival  of  an  in- 
stitution of  the  oldest  Roman  law, — that  device 
known  as  "The  Perpetual  Tutelage  of  Woman." 
The  church  was  given,  in  every  state  in  Europe,  not 
excepting  England,  a  free  hand  in  the  formation  of 
the  laws  relating  to  the  position  of  woman,  the  posi- 
tion of  children,  and  the  inheritance  of  property. 
And  while  the  later  Roman  law  was  revived  in  re- 
gard to  all  other  subjects,  on  these  points  it  was 
the  very  most  archaic  of  the  Roman  laws  which 
were  applied.  But  with  this  one  difference:  that, 
while  the  Roman  law  vested  all  the  rights  of  master- 
ship in  the  father,  and  they  were  transferred  by  him, 
as  property  rights,  to  the  husband,  the  modern  laws 
vest  them,  originally,  in  the  husband. 

On  looking  over  the  entire  field  of  medieval  his- 
tory, the  two  great  achievements  of  the  period,  those 
which  stand  out  most  conspicuously,  and  are  most 
fraught  with  meaning  for  the  future  of  the  race  are 


96  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

these.  That  man  has  become,  in  his  social  habits, 
a  working  animal  instead  of  a  fighting  animal.  And 
that  national  governments  have  been  formed  in  the 
place  of  tribal  governments;  and  that  they  have 
finally  been  hammered  into  such  shape  that  progress 
is  possible  under  them,  by  means  of  his  organiza- 
tions on  the  lines  of  his  economic  interests. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    MODERN    ERA 

IN  the  matter  of  social  progress,  Italy  had  the  bet- 
ter of  other  European  nations  at  the  beginning 
of  the  modern  period,  both  in  the  fact  that  she  oc- 
cupied one  of  the  sites  of  early  civilization,  the  pul- 
sations of  which  had  never  quite  died  out,  and  in  that 
she  had  a  clear  waterway  to  the  Mohammedan 
countries  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  her  commercial  relations  with  them  inoculated 
her  directly  with  their  culture.  And  the  ruins  of 
ancient  Greece,  lying  along  the  shore  of  this  trade- 
route,  did  their  part  in  reviving  the  ancient  ideas 
and  aspirations  in  the  minds  of  modern  man.  Thus 
it  happened  that  the  new  arts  of  printing  and  book- 
making  became  the  means  of  spreading  the  classical 
literature  and  learning  among  the  Italians,  while  in 
the  more  remote  countries  the  Hebrew  literature, 
the  Bible,  had  a  wider  popularity,  and  served  to 
communicate  somewhat  of  the  spirit  of  that  earlier 
patriarchal  period  to  the  northern  civilizations. 
But  aside  from  this  generalization,  it  was  the  more 
educated  classes  everywhere  who  took  up  the  study 
and  adopted  the  spirit  of  the  classics,  while  the 

97 


98  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

masses  found  more  interest  in  the  literature  of  the 
earlier  period. 

Now,  the  political  spirit  of  the  renascence  was 
democratic;  and  the  greatest  writers  of  antiquity 
having  lived  before  the  age  of  pessimism,  placed 
human  reason  above  revelation  as  a  guide  to  truth, 
and  taught  a  cheerful  respect  for  human  nature. 
The  old  studies  were  revived  within  the  church 
schools,  for  the  universities  were  established  within 
the  church;  but  the  humanism  of  the  ancients  was 
a  direct  denial  of  the  theory  of  the  vileness  of  hu- 
man nature,  on  which  the  entire  dogma  of  the 
church  depended,  and  of  inspiration,  the  means  by 
which  it  claimed  to  receive  authority.  So  the  re- 
nascence was  no  sooner  well  under  way  than  the 
church  began  to  discourage  it,  and  to  combat  the 
new  views  and  theories  of  life  which  it  inculcated. 
Under  the  spell  of  the  renascence,  people  began  to 
believe  in  the  pleasures  of  this  world,  and  to  regard 
the  life  of  the  flesh  as  a  good  thing  for  its  own  sake ; 
while  the  Hebrew  literature  concentrated  the  atten- 
tion upon  the  supernatural  and  strove  to  narrow  life 
to  the  purpose  of  preparing  for  another  world  to 
come.  For  this  reason  the  church  favored  the  lat- 
ter; but  the  political  tendency  of  the  Bible  was 
no  less  democratic  than  that  of  the  classics,  for  it 
professed  to  place  every  man  in  communication  with 
the  sources  of  inspiration,  on  his  own  account. 

At  the  same  time,  the  scandalous  immoralities  of 
the  church,  the  sale  of  indulgences,  the  licencious- 


THE  MODERN  ERA  99 

ness  of  the  monasteries,  the  open  concubinage  of 
the  priesthood,  all  were  bringing  on  a  state  of  popu- 
lar contempt  and  rebellion  against  the  ecclesiastical 
authority.  The  more  conservative  spirits  had  long 
hoped  and  striven  for  a  reformation  of  abuses  within 
the  church;  but  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, a  priest  of  Wittenburg,  one  Martin  Luther 
by  name,  impatient  of  the  postponement  of  reform, 
nailed  to  his  church  door  a  categorical  condemnation 
and  defiance  of  the  church,  and  went  about  preach- 
ing rebellion.  There  was  at  once  a  general  taking 
sides  on  the  question.  Luther  was  tried  by  a  coun- 
cil of  the  church,  and  condemned  to  the  stake  as  a 
heretic;  but  the  council  which  condemned  him,  re- 
fused to  make  any  reform  in  the  offensive  practices 
of  the  church,  thus  adding  fuel  to  the  rebellion. 
Heretical  teachings  and  practices  were  forbidden  on 
pain  of  death,  and  yet  heresy  spread  tremendously. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  heretics  represented  more 
than  religious  frenzy,  it  was  largely  a  rebound  from 
tyranny,  and  for  this  reason  it  appeared  dangerous 
to  the  secular  rulers. 

It  brought  about  an  independent  organization 
within  the  state,  which  claimed  authority  from 
powers  higher  than  the  state.  And  for  this  reason 
the  monarchs  of  Europe  seemed  to  stand  on  the  side 
of  the  church.  But  if  the  common  people  were  glad 
to  revolt  for  the  sake  of  both  conscience  and  liberty, 
the  secular  rulers  often  were  as  glad  to  declare  their 
independence  of  Rome;  and  thus  it  happened  that 


loo         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

sometimes  they  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of 
the  people,  and  sometimes  on  the  side  of  the  pope. 

Meantime,  John  Calvin,  a  Frenchman  living  in 
Switzerland,  started  another  rebellion  against  the 
church.  His  scheme  was  to  set  up  a  rival  organi- 
zation, having  all  the  universal  power  of  the  Roman 
hierarchy,  but  based  on  a  somewhat  different  doc- 
trine. Thus  the  protestants  were  divided  against 
themselves. 

In  France,  the  keen  intellectual  life  which  had 
been  awakened  by  the  northward  spread  of  the  re- 
nascence was  directing  itself  toward  working  out  the 
problems  of  the  relation  between  the  church  and  the 
state;  that  between  the  prince  and  the  people,  be- 
tween monarchy  and  democracy.  Reformers  within 
the  church  were  trying  to  work  out  a  new  system  of 
dogma  and  discipline;  the  Calvinists  were  trying  to 
float  their  system,  but  all  without  any  practical  re- 
sult. Religion  became  a  pretext  for  political  quar- 
rels, and  politics  for  religious  differences;  and  all 
the  time  the  different  groups  and  parties  were  wax- 
ing more  vehement.  Finally  the  religious  and  po- 
litical parties  coalesced  on  general  lines.  In  an  in- 
definite way,  catholics  became  monarchists,  and 
protestants  became  political  rebels.  By  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  vehemence  led  to  plots, 
counter-plots  and  murders;  massacres  of  catholics, 
massacres  of  protestants,  and  outbreaks  of  civil  war 
succeeded  one  another. 

Philip  II  of  Spain  was  vigorously  applying  the 


THE  MODERN  ERA  loi 

inquisition  and  the  torch  at  home  and  in  the  Nether- 
lands. In  England,  Henry  VIII  had  separated  the 
church  from  Rome,  had  taken  the  title  of,  "On 
Earth  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church,"  and  had  sent 
to  the  stake  many  persons  who  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge the  title.  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  author  of 
"Utopia,"  among  the  number.  The  north  German 
and  Scandinavian  countries,  princes  and  people 
alike,  had  gone  over  to  the  reformation.  South  Ger- 
many was  slowly  coming  over,  with  much  fighting 
and  bloodshed.  The  empire,  under  the  house  of 
Austria,  was  catholic,  along  with  Spain  and  Italy. 
Catherine  de  Medici  and  her  sons,  who  succeeded 
one  another  on  the  throne  of  France,  were  trying, 
with  varying  success,  to  maintain  a  balance  of  power 
between  the  parties.  Henry  VIII  had  died,  and  his 
son  Edward  VI  had  turned  the  church  over  to  the 
protestants;  he  had  died,  and  his  sister,  Mary,  a 
catholic  bigot,  had  intrigued  with  the  pope,  to  re- 
store the  church  to  Rome.  She,  in  turn,  had  died, 
after  five  years  of  appalling  butchery,  and  her  sister 
Elizabeth  had  come  to  the  throne. 

Elizabeth  was  a  child  of  the  renascence;  and  to 
her,  all  this  blood-shed  about  religion  was  a  silly 
and  stupid  blunder.  She  restored  the  church  to 
the  state  in  which  her  father  had  left  it,  made  the 
bishops  her  servants,  and  set  about  developing  the 
economic  resources  of  her  little  realm,  which  she 
found  just  about  the  poorest  in  Europe,  without 
army  or  navy,  and  the  prey  of  two  fairly  well-bal- 


102  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

anced  parties  of  infuriated  theologians.  Her  policy 
in  religion  remained,  throughout  her  life,  one  of 
keeping  the  balance  between  the  two  parties.  In 
Scotland,  a  violently  presbyterian  people  were  try- 
ing to  supervise  the  worship  of  a  determinedly  cath- 
'olic  sovereign,  Mary  Stuart.  Such  was  the  state  of 
Europe,  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

We  saw  in  the  last  chapter,  that  during  the  mid- 
dle ages  men  had  learned  to  work  in  a  state  of  free- 
dom, and  that  national  governments  had  developed 
which  were  able  to  secure  some  measure  of  protec- 
tion to  people  in  their  work.  The  people  had,  in 
turn,  secured  control  of  the  taxing  power,  and,  by 
the  use  of  this,  had  been  able  to  place  many  restric- 
tions upon  the  absolutism  of  princes.  All  these  con- 
ditions were  accompanied  by  an  increasing  comfort 
and  plenty.  Reading  and  writing  became  common, 
the  ancient  learning  was  revived,  printing  and  pa- 
per-making were  invented,  and  the  manufacture  of 
books  gave  a  wide  circulation  to  the  classical  litera- 
ture. Commerce  was  highly  developed,  and  the 
free  interchange  of  goods  stimulated  manufactures. 
The  new  world  was  discovered;  a  sailing  route  to 
the  orient  had  been  found.  The  tool  was  growing 
toward  the  machine,  factory  methods  were  begin- 
ning to  displace  individual  production,  and  the  in- 
creased efficiency  in  the  individual  which  resulted 
therefrom  was  helping  on  the  general  prosperity  and 
the  increasing  culture.  It  seemed  as  if  the  golden 
age  was  just  about  to  dawn.     So  many  wonders  had 


THE  MODERN  ERA  103 

never  transpired  in  all  the  world  before.  That  was 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth,  we  see  a  race  whose  attention  is 
centered  on  the  supernatural,  tearing  at  each  other's 
throats,  each  immovably  determined  to  make  his 
fellow  believe  as  he  does,  for  his  soul's  salvation. 
The  golden  age  has  not  arrived.  On  the  contrary, 
wars  of  a  political-religious  nature  have  constantly 
broken  out,  here  and  there,  over  the  face  of  Europe. 
The  pope  had  seen  one  country  after  another  go  over 
to  protestantism  until  his  cause  seemed  lost.  Re- 
form, the  only  thing  which  would  have  put  a  stop 
to  the  general  defection,  was  steadfastly  denied. 
Finally,  in  1562,  an  international  appeal  to  arms 
was  made.  All  the  catholic  countries  of  Europe 
sent  their  armies  to  France,  where  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  heresy  was  to  be  wiped 
out  in  blood.  An  international  army  of  protestants 
undertook  to  contest  the  field ;  but  the  next  year  the 
assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  put  an  end  to  the 
attempt,  and  the  armies  fell  apart.  Catherine  de 
Medici  and  Elizabeth  returned  to  their  system  of 
balance,  Germany  resumed  the  building  of  Lutheran 
churches  and  secularizing  the  church  lands;  Philip 
of  Spain  resumed  the  burning  of  heretics  in  his  un- 
happy peninsula  and  in  the  Netherlands.  But 
France  was  too  near  to  Rome  for  balance  to  be  suc- 
cessfully maintained.  The  catholics  intrigued,  the 
protestants  were  driven  to  a  frenzy  of  apprehension, 
edicts  of  Toleration  and  edicts  of  Pacification  were 


104  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

issued  without  avail.  The  people  would  neither 
tolerate  nor  be  pacified,  so  long  as  their  neighbors 
refused  to  agree  with  them  in  matters  relating  to 
the  supernatural.  At  length,  in  the  hope  of  putting 
an  end  to  the  struggle,  Catherine  and  her  son  gave 
their  consent  to  a  plot  which  the  catholics  had 
hatched,  for  a  nation-wide  massacre  of  protestants. 
The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  terminated  the 
war,  perhaps  the  death  of  the  leading  protestants 
would  reduce  their  followers  to  submission.  The 
massacre  took  place  on  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  1572. 
Different  estimates  place  the  number  of  killed  all 
the  way  from  10,000  to  100,000.  But  there  is  no 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  results.  Pandemo- 
nium worse  confounded,  broke  loose  in  France.  Na- 
tional parties  went  to  pieces.  People  gave  up  trying 
to  work  out  problems.  The  intellectual  inter- 
ests of  the  nation  were  forgotten.  Again  the  chaos 
of  civil  war  devastated  the  land;  and  it  was  only  at 
the  end  of  another  year  that  the  country  would  ac- 
cept an  edict  of  Toleration,  being  by  that  time  so  ex- 
hausted that  it  was  impossible  to  longer  keep  up  the 
fight.  Catholicism  was  saved  for  the  time,  but  the 
process  of  building  up  the  Huguenot  organization 
began  again  immediately.  And  it  was  in  this  or- 
ganization that  the  difficulty  lay,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  monarchy.  An  organized  people  was 
sure  to  become  conscious  of  itself  as  a  social  entity 
and  a  political  power,  even  if  it  was  organized  for 
religious  purposes,  and  the  protestant  churches  were 


THE  MODERN  ERA  105 

constantly  carrying  on  political  discussions  which 
kept  the  country  in  an  uproar.  So  long  as  organiza- 
tion was  only  local  and  scattering,  it  could  be  ig- 
nored, but  the  protestants  knitted  up  their  system 
with  a  diabolical  persistency.  The  States  General 
were  convened,  and  deliberated  for  months  together, 
without  being  able  to  suggest  any  means  to  pacify  the 
country.  So  in  1585  an  edict  was  issued  against  the 
protestant  worship,  and  again  the  dogs  of  civil,  re- 
ligious war  were  let  loose,  not  only  involving  all 
France,  but  the  protestant  countries  of  north  Ger- 
many as  well.  Henry  IV  became  king  of  France  in 
1589,  a  strong  resourceful  man,  and  determined 
upon  peace;  but  though  he  made  concessions  and  of- 
fered toleration  to  both  sides,  it  was  not  until  1598 
that  he  could  publish  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  by  which 
the  war  was  terminated.  And  even  then,  peace  was 
possible  only  because  the  country  was  exhausted  to 
the  point  of  prostration.  Even  then  he  dared  not 
convene  the  States  General,  because  he  knew  that 
neither  the  catholic  nor  the  protestant  delegates 
would  consent  to  the  peace,  which  secured  toleration 
for  all. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  this  religious  frenzy,  honesty 
was  never  at  a  lower  ebb.  Notwithstanding  the 
prostration  of  the  country,  the  tax-gatherers  con- 
tinued to  ply  their  trade  with  zeal  and  success;  but 
little  of  the  money  collected  reached  the  king.  In 
1596  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Rosny:  "My  poverty 
is  incredible."     "My  shirts  are  all  torn,  my  doublets 


io6         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

out  at  elbows;  my  cupboard  is  often  bare,  and  for 
the  last  two  days  I  have  been  dining  and  supping 
with  one  and  another."  He  begged  Rosny  to  in- 
vestigate where  the  trouble  lay,  which  the  latter 
agreed  to  do.  And  it  is  recorded  that,  "When  he 
went  on  his  inspection,  the  treasurers  of  France,  re- 
ceivers, accountants,  comptrollers,  either  absented 
themselves,  or  refused  to  produce  him  any  register; 
he  suspended  some,  frightened  others,  .  .  .  and  he 
proved  from  the  principal  items  of  receipt  and  ex- 
penditure at  those  four  general  offices,  so  much  and 
such  fraudulence  that  he  collected  500,000  crowns, 
.  .  .  had  these  sums  placed  in  seventy  carts  and 
drove  them  to  Rouen  where  the  king  was." 

Between  1593  and  1609  the  protestants  of 
France  held  seven  national  synods  for  the  discus- 
sion of  religious  questions,  and  eleven  national  as- 
semblies for  the  discussion  of  their  political  inter- 
ests and  attitude,  and  this  fact  reveals  them  acting  as 
republicans,  and  having  an  organization  which 
might  have  been  tremendously  valuable  to  them, 
and  equally  dangerous  to  the  monarchy,  for  political 
purposes.  But  nothing  came  of  it.  The  founda- 
tion of  successful  democracy  was  not  yet  laid,  as 
we  shall  presently  see.  The  discussion  of  political 
questions  was  doomed  to  failure  for  yet  another  sea- 
son. Political  questions  were  not  to  be  decided  on 
the  basis  of  speculations  about  the  supernatural. 

The  economic  prostration  of  the  country  was 
made  worse  by  the  tolls  and  duties  which  were  still 


THE  MODERN  ERA  107 

charged  at  the  boundaries  of  every  county  and 
duchy  in  the  kingdom,  and  by  the  neglected  condi- 
tion of  the  highways ;  but  neither  the  States  General 
nor  the  protestant  assemblies  attacked  these  evils. 
The  vast  destruction  of  personal  property,  tools, 
utensils  and  implements  of  every  kind ;  the  difficulty 
of  finding  seed  for  the  crops,  the  scarcity  of  domestic 
animals,  all  made  the  daily  life  of  the  people  hard 
to  the  last  degree;  and  on  the  basis  of  this  national 
prostration,  Richelieu,  the  minister  of  the  widow 
and  soi;i  of  Henry  IV,  built  up  a  system  of  absolu- 
tism such  as  France  had  never  known  before.  The 
States  General  were  no  longer  convoked,  all  power 
and  authority  were  gathered  into  the  hands  of  the 
king. 

When  Philip  II  came  to  the  throne  of  Spain  in 
1556,  he  was  the  strongest  monarch  in  Europe. 
Possessed  of  vast  territories  in  the  new  world,  from 
which  he  drew  enormous  wealth,  hereditary  ruler 
of  Spain,  the  Low  Countries  and  large  provinces  in 
Italy,  possessing  armies  and  a  navy  which  were 
reckoned  invincible,  he  devoted  his  entire  life, 
his  wealth,  his  military  and  naval  power,  to  the  sup- 
port of  Catholicism.  He  signed  death  warrants  in 
blank  by  the  trunkful  for  the  use  of  his  inquisitors 
in  the  Netherlands,  he  instigated  and  paid  for  a  long 
generation  of  ceaseless  wars  in  the  name  of  religion. 
In  Spain,  as  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  the  army 
was  the  only  honorable  profession.  The  ancient 
cities  of  Spain  had,  indeed,  bodies  of  far-famed 


io8         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

craftsmen;  but  so  little  sense  of  values  had  Philip, 
thatiie  drove  a  large  proportion  of  them  to  Eng- 
land, by  the  inquisition.  It  sufficed  for  his  most 
catholic  majesty  to  bring  over  the  gold  of  the  Incas, 
and  pour  it  into  the  lap  of  the  manufacturing  cities 
of  Europe.  For  him,  it  served  for  one  or  two  ex- 
changes of  merchandise;  for  them,  it  was  the  life- 
blood  of  commerce  and  of  industry,  for  generations. 
Yet  nobody  realized  that  he  was  not  still  the  mighti- 
est monarch  in  the  world,  even  when  his  Invincible 
Armada  was  put  to  flight  by  the  sailors  and  mer- 
chantmen of  Elizabeth. 

When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne,  England 
was  scarcely  considered  an  European  power.  She 
had  lost  all  her  possessions  on  the  continent,  she 
possessed  neither  an  army  nor  a  navy.  Her  treasury 
was  drained.  Her  shipping  was  insignificant,  her 
woolen  manufacture  of  very  inferior  quality  to  that 
of  Flanders.  Her  population  was  distracted  by 
the  constant  changes  in  the  religious  creed  of  her 
sovereigns  and  the  ruthlessness  with  which  these 
changes  had  been  forced  on  them.  The  New  Learn- 
ing had  died  out,  smothered  by  the  Reformation, 
with  its  endless  disputations  upon  points  of  specula- 
tion. The  universities  had  declined,  students  had 
fallen  off,  the  libraries  were  scattered.  People 
seemed  to  care  only  about  the  forms  of  religious  wor- 
ship. Both  catholics  and  protestants,  by  turns,  had 
been  whipped  into  a  state  of  hysterical  nervousness, 
and  apprehension  fed  their  zeal,  until  each  side  was 


THE  MODERN  ERA  log 

ready  to  send  the  other  "to  the  fire."  Elizabeth 
made  the  Church  of  England  as  good  a  compromise 
as  she  could  between  the  warring  elements;  and  re- 
quired conformity  of  worship,  on  pain  of  fines,  but 
she  let  it  be  known  that  no  man  would  be  ques- 
tioned, as  to  his  conscience.  From  the  first,  this 
arrangement  was  an  economic  benefit  to  the  country ; 
the  persecuted  artisans  from  Spain  and  France  and 
the  Netherlands  flocked  to  her  cities,  and  gave  to 
commerce  and  industry  an  impulse  which  greatly 
assisted  in  establishing  a  state  of  prosperity.  The 
cities  of  Bruges  and  Antwerp  were  the  markets  of 
the  world.  Philip  besieged  and  captured  Antwerp 
and  ruined  both.  The  inhabitants,  with  their  capi- 
tal, their  industry,  their  trade  and  shipping,  were 
transferred  to  London  and  it  became  the  greatest 
trading  city  of  Europe.  The  silks  and  cottons  and 
spices  of  the  orient,  the  gold  of  the  Guinea  coast  and 
the  sugar  of  the  West  Indies  all  found  their  greatest 
market  in  the  city  on  the  Thames.  For  a  century, 
England  had  been  filled  with  crowds  of  "broken 
men,"  a  vast  army  of  the  unemployed.  An  increase 
in  the  value  of  wool  had  produced  an  "agricultural 
revolution,"  in  which  the  old  small  land  holdings 
had  been  consolidated  into  large  sheep  ranges  and 
the  old,  agricultural  population  had  been  evicted. 
Comparatively  few  men  were  required  to  tend  the 
sheep,  and  the  rest  were  turned  out  to  starve.  It 
had  been  the  custom  to  round  them  up  in  batches 
and  hang  them  as  vagrants  to  the  nearest  gibbet. 


no  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

But  the  new  increase  in  population  demanded  larger 
supplies  of  food;  Elizabeth  had  a  large  number  of 
new  food  plants  introduced  from  Italy,  a  more  in- 
tensive system  of  cultivation  was  adopted,  and  a 
large  part  of  the  unemployed  population  was  re- 
absorbed by  the  farms.  A  ray  of  domestic  comfort 
began  to  find  its  way  into  the  homes  of  the  poor; 
they  began  to  build  chimneys  in  their  cottages,  the 
use  of  window  glass  became  more  general,  and 
pillows  were  seen  on  the  beds  of  common  people. 

Portugal  had  established  itself  in  the  India  trade; 
Philip  of  Spain  made  war  on  her,  conquered  the  coun- 
try, and  the  trade  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Nether- 
land  cities.  Philip  then  made  war  on  them,  and  the 
trade  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  He  sent 
his  Invincible  Armada  together  with  the  navy  of 
Portugal,  against  the  tiny  navy  of  England,  re- 
enforced  by  the  battered  ships  of  the  Hollanders  and 
her  own  merchantmen.  The  merchant  companies 
sent  ships  that  rivaled  those  of  the  government  in 
power.  Country  squires  and  burghers  put  to  sea 
in  tiny  vessels  armed  with  a  gun  or  two;  every  vil- 
lage on  the  coast  sent  its  little  tub  with  a  crew  to 
have  a  brush  with  the  Spaniard.  The  Armada  was 
beset  as  with  a  swarm  of  gnats.  Its  men  were 
picked  off  by  innumerable  marksmen  from  all  di- 
rections. Half  of  its  seamen  were  killed  before  it 
could  really  offer  battle ;  a  storm  at  sea  did  the  rest. 
The  Armada  was  defeated  by  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
people  who  were  enjoying  economic  prosperity,  and 


THE  MODERN  ERA  in 

who  knew  that  it  would  be  saved  or  ruined  on  the 
issue  of  the  battle.  Philip  took  his  defeat  with  great 
resignation,  not  knowing  that  the  empire  of  the  seas 
had  passed  to  the  one  nation  which  had  been  cultiva- 
ting its  economic  resources  while  he  had  been  making 
war  in  the  name  of  religion.  Thirty  years  before, 
England  had  not  been  considered  a  factor  in  Euro- 
pean politics;  she  now  had  laid  the  foundation  for 
and  entered  upon  that  career  which  made  her  mis- 
tress of  an  empire  in  America,  an  empire  in  India, 
another  in  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  yet  another  in 
Africa. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  gram- 
mar schools  were  established,  wherever  there  were  in- 
tervals of  peace.  In  England,  they  taught  both  the 
classics  and  the  New  Learning,  based  on  the  Bible. 
In  Germany  they  were  frankly  established  for  the 
purpose  of  "training  up  a  generation  of  believers  in 
the  bible."  In  France  they  had  made  almost  frantic 
efforts  to  introduce  order  into  thought,  before  the  St. 
Bartholomew.  Men  were  trying  to  "justify  faith 
by  reason,"  as  if  that  would,  in  some  way,  clear  the 
difficulty.  At  the  end  of  the  century,  Gallileo  and 
Kepler  were  teaching  the  astronomical  theory  of 
Copernicus,  Descartes  was  discovering  the  laws  of 
motion,  Harvey  discovered  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  Gilbert  was  studying  magnetism;  natural 
history  collections  were  being  classified  and  sys- 
tematized. Order  was  being  introduced  into 
thought,  but  men  did  not  quite  realize  it,  until  Sir 


112  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

Francis  Bacon  promulgated  his  system  of  inductive 
reasoning;  in  which  faith  had  no  part  whatever. 

Modern  history  is  said  to  begin  with  the  year 
1480;  but  the  modern  mind  did  not  make  its  ap- 
pearance until  a  group  of  men  appeared,  who  are 
best  represented  by  William  Shakespeare  and  Francis 
Bacon.  These  two  men  had  really  the  same  type  of 
mind,  the  only  difference  being  one  of  temperament. 
Shakespeare  raised  no  question  of  faith;  he  was 
neither  optimist  nor  pessimist.  He  accepted  life  for 
what  it  was  worth  and  studied  it  without  prejudice. 
Bacon  affirmed  the  unity  of  knowledge,  which  he 
classified  into  many  departments;  but  he  had  no  de- 
partment for  theology.  Knowledge  was  to  be  built 
up  by  the  process  of  practical  experimentation ;  hy- 
pothesis was  always  to  yield  to  fact.  Reason  itself 
was  without  authority,  except  it  was  based  on 
demonstrable  fact. 

But  the  mind  of  the  masses  of  the  people  had  not 
been  reached  by  the  new  philosophy;  indeed,  all  the 
forces  of  the  church,  of  whatever  denomination,  were 
opposed  to  this  new  theory  and  all  its  works.  A 
denial  of  the  authority  of  faith; — any  faith  what- 
ever, was  a  new  kind  of  heresy,  against  which  all  de- 
nominations could  unite.  At  the  same  time,  the 
public  mind  was  again  completing  the  old  weary 
circle  of  material  comfort,  intellectual  cultivation, 
hope,  despair,  decay.  It  had  now  come  again  to  the 
stage  of  despair.  During  the  period  of  Shakespeare 
and  his  contemporaries,  eighteen  theaters  had  been 


THE  MODERN  ERA  113 

opened  and  did  a  thriving  business  in  London.  That 
was  the  age  of  intellectual  cultivation  and  hope. 
During  the  next  fifty  years,  they  were  all  closed,  in 
order  to  compel  the  people  to  think  on  the  wrath  to 
come.  And  they  were  closed  at  the  demand  of  the 
people.  That  was  the  beginning  of  the  age  of 
despair.  Sunday  festivities  were  forbidden.  Mince 
pies  were  cut  out  of  the  diet  of  the  pious,  as  being 
delightful,  and  therefore  tending  to  make  people  for- 
get God.  The  ills  of  the  world  and  the  vices  of 
the  flesh  were  again  the  prevailing  subject  of  con- 
templation. In  short,  England  had  turned  Puritan. 
But  this  time,  puritanism  was  not  destined  to  sink 
the  ship;  for  inductive  reasoning  was  at  last  at  the 
helm  and  the  methods  of  modern  science  were  sup- 
plying the  human  mind  with  materials  to  build  a 
way  out ;  the  way  of  neither  optimism  nor  pessimism, 
but  of  meliorism.  This  time  the  world  went  right 
on.  While  the  religious  and  the  uninstructed  con- 
centrated their  attention  upon  the  horrors  or  the 
meaningless  bliss  of  an  imaginary  hereafter,  and 
clutched  weakly  at  the  straws  of  unsupported  faith, 
small  groups  of  men,  here  and  there,  were  trying, 
verifying,  classifying  and  generalizing  upon  the 
simple,  concrete,  immediate  facts  of  this  world. 
The  ancient  philosophers  and  the  theologians  said: 
The  rules  of  the  universe  are  thus  and  so ;  any  facts 
which  do  not  accord  with  these  rules  are  vicious  and 
must  be  suppressed.  The  scientist,  proceeding  by 
the  rules  of  inductive  reasoning  said :     We  will  first 


114         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

prove  our  facts,  and  then  we  will  make  our  rules  in 
accordance  with  them,  and  these  rules  shall  lead  us 
to  the  discovery  of  new  facts,  but  our  rules  shall  al- 
ways be  subject  to  revision,  to  make  them  conform 
to  such  new  facts  as  we  shall  discover.  It  may  be 
said  that  the  older  method,  that  of  beginning  with 
the  remote  and  the  abstract  for  the  purpose  of  find- 
ing out  the  immediate,  is  the  mode  of  the  mascu- 
line mind ;  while  that  of  beginning  with  the  concrete 
and  the  immediate  and  proceeding  from  that  to  the 
general,  is  the  method  of  the  feminine  mind.  And 
the  long  and  difficult  way  that  humanity  had  to 
travel  before  it  picked  up  the  trail  of  truth  was  un- 
doubtedly much  more  long  and  difficult  than  it 
would  otherwise  have  been,  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  women  were  excluded  from  participation  in 
intellectual  pursuits  by  their  domestic  isolation. 
However  little  it  may  have  appeared,  at  that  time 
or  since,  the  age  of  Francis  Bacon  introduced  the 
era  of  feminism. 

But  we  have  to  turn  yet  again  to  the  seat  of  war; 
religious  war.  In  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  peasants  of  south  Germany  determined 
that  they  would  have  neither  princes  nor  palaces, 
priests  nor  convents,  in  their  midst.  And  in  pur- 
suance of  this  resolve,  they  rose  in  multitudes  and 
proceeded  in  the  most  practical  ways  to  get  rid  of 
the  intruders,  by  fire  and  the  sword.  Thus  far,  they 
did  effective  work;  but  they  failed  to  follow  up  in- 
stantly with  the  organization  necessary  to  hold  what 


THE  MODERN  ERA  115 

they  had  gained ;  and  they  were  dispersed  with  great 
slaughter;  it  is  recorded  that  the  vengeance  which 
was  wreaked  upon  them  obliterated  the  memory  of 
their  cruelties.  Now  the  Lutheran  reformation  was 
just  getting  under  way,  and  Luther  put  himself  on 
the  side  of  the  princes,  saying  in  the  gentle  priestly 
fashion  of  the  time,  that  the  peasants  "must  be  ex- 
terminated like  mad-dogs."  Ah!  This  was  a  ref- 
ormation worth  having.  Ever  since  the  year  800, 
when  the  pope  had  crowned  the  German  king  "Em- 
peror of  the  Romans,"  the  church  had  received  grants 
of  land  of  the  utmost  liberality  at  the  hands  of  the 
Germans.  Every  time  a  new  emperor  was  to  be 
crowned,  of  course  new  lands  had  to  be  given  to  the 
church.  But  for  a  long  time  now,  the  German 
princes  hadn't  wanted  any  emperor;  and  when  they 
had  one,  they  did  all  they  could  to  limit  his  authority 
and  enlarge  their  own  freedom.  So  now  it  came 
about  that  the  church  was  holding  enormous  terri- 
tories all  over  Germany,  and  the  Germans  no  longer 
had  anything  to  gain  from  remaining  on  good  terms 
with  the  pope.  What  could  be  simpler  than  for  the 
princes  to  throw  off  the  claims  of  the  church,  annex 
the  church  lands  to  their  several  domains,  and  so 
gain  wealth  and  freedom  at  the  same  time^  And 
especially  was  this  true,  since  the  reformation,  while 
it  freed  them  from  the  pope,  was  not  to  free  the 
people  from  them.  Luther  would  attend  to  that. 
So  here  we  have  the  economic  reason  for  the  religious 
reformation  in  Germany.     The  process  had  been  go- 


ii6         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

ing  on  uninterruptedly  and  peaceably  for  half  a  cen- 
tury. The  prince  would  annex  the  lands  of  the 
church,  turn  out  the  priests  and  put  preachers  in  their 
stead,  and  there  you  are.  Germany  was  thickly 
populated,  well  tilled,  prosperous,  educated ;  and  in- 
deed, it  almost  seemed  that  the  golden  age  had  really 
come,  here. 

The  empire  had  become  a  shadowy  affair  now,  yet 
the  princes  of  the  house  of  Austria  claimed  the  im- 
perial crown,  and  Austria  was  catholic.  There  was 
a  dispute  about  the  succession  to  the  crown  of 
Prussia,  and  the  emperor  seemed  to  be  intending 
to  appropriate  it  himself;  so,  in  this  state  of  affairs, 
the  protestant  princes,  who  were  greatly  in  the  ma- 
jority, formed  a  "Protestant  Union,"  in  1608.  In 
1609,  the  catholic  princes  formed  a  "League." 
The  heirs  of  the  house  of  Prussia  appealed  to  the 
Union,  and  France,  and  the  Emperor,  turned  to  the 
League.  Then  followed  the  "Thirty  Years'  War." 
We  will  not  attempt  to  follow  its  tortuous  course; 
but  will  note  some  of  the  general  features  of  it  in 
passing. 

The  protestants  were  much  the  more  numerous; 
but  the  catholics  were  under  the  one  head,  the  em- 
peror, while  the  protestant  princes  were  prevented 
from  acting  with  any  efficiency  by  their  jealousies 
and  rivalries.  Each  was  mortally  afraid  that  the 
other  would  make  something  at  his  expense,  or 
would  come  out  ahead  in  the  end.  So  the  emperor 
gained   one   victory   after  another,    and   gradually 


THE  MODERN  ERA  117 

strengthened  himself  until,  in  1629,  he  felt  strong 
enough  to  issue  a  decree  that  all  the  church  lands 
which  had  been  secularized  should  be  restored. 
Here,  at  last,  was  a  common  ground  on  which  all 
the  protestant  princes  could  unite.  The  emperor 
was  dependent  for  his  success  on  his  general,  Wallen- 
stein,  and  Wallenstein  now  proclaimed  that  the 
separate  states  of  Germany  must  go.  The  emperor 
must  be  absolute,  like  the  king,  in  Spain  and  France. 
This,  at  last,  woke  the  princes  up.  The  Swedish 
king,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  came  over  at  this  time, 
to  save  the  protestants,  and  though  the  Germans 
rallied  to  him  but  slowly,  he  succeeded  in  turning 
the  tide,  and  after  that  the  war  went  more  in  favor 
of  the  protestants.  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  killed 
in  battle ;  but  by  this  time,  the  emperor  and  Wallen- 
stein were  quarreling,  and  at  last,  the  latter  was  as- 
sassinated, to  rid  the  emperor  of  him.  The  em- 
peror now  was  free,  but  he  had  lost  his  fighting 
power.  Peace  negotiations  had  been  begun  in  1640; 
but  it  was  not  until  1648  that  a  treaty  could  be  com- 
pleted, in  which  all  the  multitude  of  petty  sovereigns 
would  concur.  By  this  treaty,  the  Peace  of  West- 
phalia, the  church  lands  were  to  remain  as  they  were 
when  the  war  broke  out,  the  different  states  were  to 
choose  their  own  religion.  France  got  a  slice  of 
territory  along  the  Rhine,  Switzerland  and  the 
Netherlands  became  free  of  Germany.  Nobody 
gained  anything.  But  in  some  parts,  only  one  of 
the  inhabitants  in  ten  was  left.     The  entire  popula- 


ii8  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

tion  was  reduced  to  one  fourth  of  its  former  num- 
bers, and  the  material  wealth  was  reduced  in  a  much 
larger  proportion.  Scarcely  any  one  was  alive  who 
had  ever  seen  a  condition  of  peace.  Those  who  were 
left  were  stupid,  brutal,  ignorant  and  without  spirit. 
Cowed,  broken,  only  caring  to  hide  from  their  tor- 
mentors; it  was  two  years  before  the  remnant  of  the 
population  could  realize  what  peace  was.  And  it 
took  two  hundred  years  for  Germany  to  recover  the 
lost  ground  in  material  wealth  and  the  arts  of  life. 
Wallenstein  had  brought  into  the  country  hordes 
of  bandit-soldiers,  of  every  nationality  under  the 
sun.  But  the  emperor  had  no  money  to  pay  them 
and  they  were  commissioned  to  get  their  pay  in 
plunder,  from  the  country.  They  did;  and  before 
they  were  disbanded,  the  country  had  been  so  cleaned 
of  every  particle  of  food,  that  the  soldiers  themselves 
were  dying  of  starvation.  They  had  carried  off 
every  removable  thing  that  would  bring  a  piece  of 
money,  and  what  could  not  be  carried  had  been 
destroyed.  The  dishes  and  pewter  pots  and  copper 
kettles  of  the  housewife,  the  farming  implements, 
every  cow  and  horse  and  chicken,  had  been  consumed. 
The  whole  country  was  starving.  Fields  and  or- 
chards and  vineyards  were  wilderness.  The  Han- 
seatic  towns,  once  the  scene  of  so  rich  and  busy  a 
life,  were  drained  of  wealth  and  almost  of  popula- 
tion. The  vessels  rotted  at  the  wharves,  grass  grew 
in  the  highways,  whole  blocks  of  houses  were  torn 
down,  whole  streets  without  a  single  inhabitant. 


THE  MODERN  ERA  119 

And  here,  as  in  France,  after  1598,  a  system  of 
absolutism  was  built  on  the  prostration  of  the  people. 
Some  of  the  popular  assemblies  were  called  together, 
but  they  had  nothing  to  propose;  they  were  power- 
less and  useless.  So  popular  government  was 
abandoned,  altogether.  At  the  courts  of  the  princes, 
hysterical  gaieties,  affectations  of  frivolity,  ostenta- 
tious displays  of  wealth  took  the  place  of  the  refine- 
ment that  had  existed  before  the  war.  The  rich 
civilization  of  Germany,  given  over  wholly  to  re- 
ligious speculation  and  unleavened  by  any  seed  of 
scientific  thought,  had  all  but  extinguished  itself  in 
a  single  generation. 

During  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  when  the  re- 
ligious strife  was  at  its  hottest,  parliament  had  lost 
interest  in  the  development  of  the  constitution,  and 
had  passed  a  law  that  proclamations  of  the  king 
should  have  all  the  power  of  statutes.  The  Tudor 
kings  had  all  been  alert  to  extend  the  prerogative  of 
the  crown  at  the  expense  of  that  of  parliament;  but 
even  so,  parliament  had,  during  the  long  period  of 
peace  and  prosperity  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  extended 
its  own  power  in  a  number  of  directions.  This 
growth  of  the  constitution  is  inevitable,  where  there 
is  a  large  middle  class  which  is  increasing  all  the 
time  in  wealth  and  power.  But  the  successor  of 
Elizabeth,  James  I,  king  of  Scotland,  had  no  idea 
of  the  principles  of  government;  he  was  first  and 
last  a  theologian.  But  he  had  all  the  Tudor  eager- 
ness fqr  extending  the  power  of  the  crowa.     His 


120  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

idea  of  the  courts  was,  that  they  were  to  render  judg- 
ments according  to  his  wishes,  regardless  of  the  law 
of  the  land;  the  church  was  to  receive  its  law  and 
doctrine,  and  accept  its  bishops  and  preachers  by  his 
appointment.  In  order  not  to  be  hampered  in  his 
designs  by  parliament,  he  laid  duties  on  a  large  num- 
ber of  articles  which  had  never  been  taxed  before, 
the  revenue  from  which  would  make  him  independ- 
ent. His  efforts  to  force  the  church  back  into  the 
catholic  fold  resulted  in  the  migrations  of  thousands 
of  his  subjects  to  North  Amierica,  where  they  estab- 
lished the  colonies  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  James 
fought  the  constitution  as  long  as  he  lived;  but 
parliament  was  then  too  well  established,  and  the 
people  too  strong  to  allow  any  king  ever  to  estab- 
lish his  independence  again  in  England.  His  son, 
Charles  I,  succeeded  him ;  but  he  had  not  learned  the 
lesson  of  his  father's  reign.  Moreover,  he  had  fallen 
under  Spanish  influence,  and  he  was  enamored  of 
the  absolutism  which  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe 
had  been  able  to  establish  over  their  impoverished 
people.  He  imagined  he  could  establish  the  same 
system  over  a  people  not  impoverished. 

Charles  levied  taxes  without  parliamentary  en- 
actment, caused  arrests  without  due  process  of  law, 
forced  conformity  with  his  changes  in  the  religion 
on  pain  of  imprisonment.  Parliament  required  him 
to  sign  the  Petition  of  Right,  which  confirmed  all 
the  constitutional  liberties  of  the  people.  It  de- 
manded that  he  should  dismiss  Buckingham,  a  friv- 


THE  MODERN  ERA  121 

olous  and  extravagant  minister,  and  redress  griev- 
ances, before  it  would  vote  the  taxes.  But  the 
Petition  of  Right  failed  to  bind  the  king;  the  parlia- 
ment repeatedly  refused  to  vote  the  taxes,  parlia- 
ment was  dissolved,  and  for  eleven  years  no  other 
parliament  was  called.  Then  the  Scottish  people 
rose  against  the  religious  changes,  and  Charles  was 
obliged  to  summon  parliament  again.  But  still 
neither  side  would  yield.  A  "Triennial  Bill"  was 
passed,  by  which  parliament  was  to  meet  once  in 
three  years,  regardless  of  the  summons  from  the 
crown.  The  houses  refused  to  grant  supplies  for 
the  war,  feeling  that  the  Scottish  people  were  fight- 
ing their  battle.  The  king  undertook  to  arrest  five 
members  of  the  house  contrary  to  the  constitution; 
and  the  break  between  king  and  people  became  hope- 
less. Parliament  now  demanded  the  right  to  ap- 
point and  dismiss  the  ministers  of  the  crown,  to  ap- 
point guardians  for  the  king's  children,  to  control 
the  army,  and  all  civil  and  religious  affairs.  The 
king  refused  his  consent  to  these  demands,  negotia- 
tions were  broken  off,  and  civil  war  between  the 
parliament  and  the  king  was  declared.  The  war 
broke  out  in  1642;  we  need  not  follow  its  fortunes, 
but  in  1648  the  king  was  taken  by  the  puritan 
army,  under  the  command  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 
Even  now,  after  six  years  of  bloody  war,  he  refused 
to  yield  on  any  important  point;  and  the  question 
of  what  to  do  with  him  became  a  terrible  one. 
Should  the  results  of  the  war  be  lost  and  the  freedom 


122         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

of  the  English  people  surrendered  to  save  a  stubborn 
king"?  The  parliament  decided  that  it  should;  it 
could  not  bring  itself  to  vote  for  his  deposition.  Par- 
liament had  not  shed  its  blood  in  the  war.  Not  so 
with  the  army.  And  the  next  morning  an  officer 
was  stationed  at  the  door  of  the  house  of  commons, 
who  excluded  from  the  house  a  sufficient  number  of 
the  adherents  of  the  king,  to  destroy  the  majority  in 
his  favor.  A  commission  was  then  named  to  try 
the  king,  and  he  was  condemned  as  a  tyrant,  traitor, 
murderer  and  enemy  of  his  country,  and  beheaded  on 
January  30th,  1640. 

Thus  ended  the  attempt  to  establish  absolutism, 
in  a  rich  and  prosperous  country.  The  next  thing 
in  order  was  to  establish  another  government.  A 
Commonwealth,  or  republic,  was  proclaimed,  and  for 
four  years  an  effort  was  made  by  Cromwell  and  his 
supporters,  to  put  it  on  foot,  but  without  success, 
the  remnant  of  parliament  refused  to  dissolve,  or 
provide  for  its  successor,  and  Cromwell  drove  it  out, 
as  he  had  driven  out  the  other  members,  four  years 
before. 

Francis  Bacon  had  declared  that  political  science 
could  have  no  value,  unless  based  on  the  findings 
of  physical  science;  and  his  secretary  Hobbes  had 
written  a  work,  the  "Leviathan,"  in  which  he  an- 
nounced the  theory  that  governments  rest  their  au- 
thority on  the  consent  of  the  governed  and  that  they 
must  be  justified  by  reason  instead  of  faith.  These 
theories  were  being  much  discussed,  and  they  were 


THE  MODERN  ERA  123 

creating  a  revolution  in  political  thought.  Now, 
when  Cromwell  drove  out  the  "rump"  of  the  parlia- 
ment, he  summoned  what  he  called  a  Constituent 
Convention,  to  draw  up  a  form  of  government. 
The  Assembly  met  and  entered  upon  its  delibera- 
tions, in  the  light  of  the  new  doctrines.  The  more 
it  discussed,  the  more  light  it  saw,  and  the  longer 
it  sat,  the  farther  it  got  away  from  the  common  un- 
derstanding of  the  people.  It  proposed  measures 
which  posterity  has  been  ever  since  enacting;  but  to 
the  people  it  seemed  as  if  the  Assembly  was  a  body 
of  dangerous  mad-caps.  The  protest  against  their 
proposals  rose  to  a  great  pitch ;  Cromwell  himself  be- 
came alarmed  at  their  extravagance,  and  once  more 
he  went  in  and  cleared  out  the  assembly  hall. 
Again  a  parliament  was  elected,  whose  task  it  was 
to  be  to  "settle"  the  government.  And  meantime, 
Cromwell  enacted  a  large  number  of  ordinances,  for 
the  government  of  the  realm.  Parliament  met,  as 
competent  a  body  of  men  as  the  time  afforded.  But 
instead  of  leaving  Cromwell's  ordinances  as  it  found 
them,  and  passing  on  no  other  matters,  it  proceeded 
gravely  with  the  discussion  of  them,  adopting  some 
and  rejecting  others.  Once  more  parliament  was 
driven  out  of  the  hall ;  and  England  settled  down  to 
a  military  dictatorship. 

The  army  was  a  body  of  "Godly  men,"  puritans. 
And  Puritanism  was  forced  on  every  phase  of  life. 
Festivities  were  forbidden,  the  theaters  were  closed, 
everybody  was  forced  to  be  good  according  to  the 


124         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

ideas  of  the  puritan  party.  But  the  administration 
was  the  best  since  the  days  of  Elizabeth.  The  coun- 
try was  not  merry  but  it  was  prosperous,  and  peo- 
ple were  patient  for  fear  worse  would  befall  them. 
At  length,  however,  a  reaction  came  on.  People 
got  tired  of  having  to  be  good  in  such  a  dry  and 
narrow  way;  everybody  carne  to  hate  the  very  name 
of  "Puritan."  Then  plots  began  to  hatch  for  re- 
calling the  son  of  the  deposed  king,  Charles  II. 
Cromwell  died,  and,  almost  immediately,  the  king 
came  back  to  England.  He  was  welcomed  with  wild 
enthusiasm  by  everyone.  Cromwell  was  reviled,  and 
his  body  was  taken  from  the  grave  and  exposed  upon 
a  gibbet. 

The  theaters  were  opened  again,  festivities  were 
revived,  exaggerated  revelries,  debaucheries  and 
license  made  up  for  the  time  lost  during  the  pro- 
tectorate. Science  became  the  fashion,  and  the 
Royal  Society,  and  the  Oxford  Society,  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  science  were  established.  The  king 
was  a  man  of  modern  mind,  but  he  had  no  mind  to 
submit  forever  to  the  restrictions  which  the  constitu- 
tion put  upon  him.  And  the  constitution  was  re- 
vived in  its  most  advanced  state.  He  was  good 
natured  and  seemed  like  a  rather  indolent,  harmless 
fellow ;  but  he  proved  to  be  probably  the  most  adroit 
politician  who  had  ever  sat  upon  the  English  throne ; 
he  was  a  catholic,  for  purely  political  purposes,  and 
in  a  short  time  it  was  seen  that  he  was  reviving  all 
the  old  controversies  of  politics  and  religion,  with  a 


THE  MODERN  ERA  125 

view  of  freeing  himself  from  constitutional  limita- 
tions. People  now  recalled  the  name  of  Cromwell 
with  reverence,  and  referred  to  the  good  days  of  his 
reign. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  details  of  English 
history  further;  we  have  seen  enough  to  illustrate 
the  hopeless  confusion,  the  loss,  the  plot  and  counter- 
plot, which  mark  the  struggle  between  a  people  and 
a  monarchy,  even  at  its  best.  Sir  Thomas  More 
said,  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  that  govern- 
ments are  simply  a  conspiracy  of  the  rich  against 
the  poor,  the  strong  against  the  weak;  which  con- 
spiracy is  carried  out  under  the  forms  of  law.  After 
following  the  course  of  the  history  of  any  nation  for 
a  few  centuries,  one  sees  that  this  is  the  best  possible 
characterization  of  it; — simply  an  unending,  ever 
changing,  kaleidoscope  of  conspiracy.  But  we 
seldom  see  the  price  which  the  poor  and  the  weak, 
made  poor  and  weak  by  this  very  conspiracy,  pay 
for  the  ignoble  victories  of  the  conspirators. 

In  France,  after  the  edict  of  Nantes,  by  which  re- 
ligious peace  was  secured,  Richelieu,  and  after  him, 
Mazarin,  applied  themselves  to  the  administration 
of  the  country  and  strengthening  the  monarchy.  By 
the  time  of  Louis  XIV,  grandson  of  Henry  IV, 
France  had  become  the  overshadowing  power  in  Eu- 
rope. What  peace  and  order  had  done  under  Eliza- 
beth, for  England,  was  now  done  for  France,  on  a 
much  larger  scale,  and  in  a  country  of  richer  natural 
resources.     With  this  difference:  that  in  England, 


126         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

the  parliament  was  well  established  before  the 
period  of  great  growth  set  in,  and  its  isolated  posi- 
tion protected  it  from  invasion  and  removed  it  from 
the  center  of  popish  plots,  and  the  strength  of  the 
nation  was  the  strength  of  its  people.  In  this  way 
the  middle  class  was  able  to  keep  abreast  of  the 
crown.  The  great  finance  minister  of  Louis  XIV, 
Colbert,  created  undreamed-of  sources  of  revenue  for 
the  crown,  by  developing  the  industry  and  com- 
merce of  the  country.  He  constructed  roads,  canals, 
bridges;  he  planted  new  industries  and  removed 
tariffs,  tolls  and  charges.  Under  this  administra- 
tion, prosperity  received  such  an  impulse  as  had 
never  before  been  even  suggested ;  but  it  was  mostly 
drained  into  the  coffers  of  the  king.  The  national 
strength  of  France  was  the  strength  of  the  monarch ; 
not  its  people.  The  splendor  of  his  court  and  the 
magnificence  of  his  armies  became  the  wonder  of  the 
world.  The  smaller  powers  of  Europe  were  obliged 
to  combine  their  forces  to  protect  themselves  against 
his  schemes  of  conquest.  But  now  the  conscience 
of  the  king  of  France  began  to  trouble  him.  He 
was  neglecting  to  defend  the  interests  of  religion  as 
he  should.  There  were  fifteen  hundred  thousand 
protestants  in  his  realm.  It  would  never  do.  So 
the  people  were  commanded  to  become  converted; 
conversions  were  bought  where  that  was  possible. 
Where  they  resisted,  dragoons  were  quartered  upon 
them,  with  instructions  to  annoy,  torture  and  abuse 
them    until    they    would    yield.     The    protestant 


THE  MODERN  ERA  127 

churches  were  all  torn  down,  the  people  forced  to 
go  to  mass.  They  were  forbidden  to  leave  the  king- 
dom on  pain  of  the  galleys  and  slavery.  Many 
thousands,  nevertheless,  did  escape,  and  took  up 
arms  with  the  enemies  of  France.  The  industries 
were  abandoned,  the  country  was  desolated  by  the 
civil  wars  which  broke  out  in  many  parts,  the  wealth 
and  power  of  the  monarchy  disappeared  and  France 
sank  to  her  old  level  among  the  European  powers. 

The  States  General  had  not  been  called  together 
since  1614;  and  the  people  had  no  governmental 
machinery  of  their  own.  It  was  the  genius  of  Col- 
bert which  created  and  set  up  that  economic  system 
on  which  the  monarchy  depended  for  its  splendor. 
But  now  Colbert  was  dead,  and  he  left  no  successor. 
And  when  the  glittering  exterior  of  France  collapsed 
it  was  found  to  be  very  hollow  inside.  In  the  reign 
of  Louis  XV,  the  local  judicial  bodies,  called  parlia- 
ments, showed  a  disposition  to  unite  and  form  some 
sort  of  national  organization;  but  they  were 
promptly  dismembered  and  suppressed,  while  the 
king  stated  his  position  in  these  words:  "In  my 
person  alone  resides  the  sovereign  power,  of  which 
the  special  characteristic  is  the  spirit  of  council, 
justice  and  reason:  it  is  from  me  alone  that  my 
courts  have  their  existence  and  authority.  It  is  to 
me  alone  that  the  legislative  power  belongs,  with- 
out dependence  and  without  partition.  My  people 
are  but  one  with  me,  and  the  rights  and  interests  of 
the  nation  whereof  men  dare  to  make  a  body  separate 


128  ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

from  the  monarch  are  necessarily  united  with  my 
own  and  rest  only  in  my  hands."  But  with  all  the 
king's  "sovereign  power,"  the  economic  foundations 
of  the  nation's  prosperity  were  allowed  to  decay. 
The  king,  for  a  time,  renewed  the  military  prestige 
of  the  nation  in  foreign  wars;  but  this  did  not  re- 
duce the  price  of  bread.  The  nobility  and  the 
church  were  exempt  from  taxes,  the  entire  burden 
of  which  was  borne  by  the  poor.  A  system  of  road 
improvement  was  begun,  but  the  peasants  were  put 
to  forced  labor,  to  get  the  work  done.  Food  was 
scarce  and  the  price  of  grain  was  raised  by  a  corner 
of  the  market;  it  was  known  that  the  king  was  in- 
terested in  the  monopoly.  Such  was  the  economic 
condition  of  France  and  the  economic  efficiency  of 
the  "sovereign  power,"  at  the  time  when  the  new 
philosophical  and  political  ideas  were  breaking 
down  men's  ideas  of  the  holiness  of  the  church  and 
the  divine  right  of  the  monarchy. 

The  French  Academy  had  founded  itself,  by  the 
spontaneous  organization  of  a  company  of  friendly 
philosophers  and  writers,  for  their  own  pleasure. 
But  it  had  pleased  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  give  it  his 
official  patronage  and  sanction;  and  it  continued 
afterward  a  rallying-point  for  French  thought  and 
letters.  All  through  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  ra- 
tionalism and  the  old  ideas  struggled  in  confusion. 
The  Academy  brought  forth  the  Encyclopaedists, 
and  a  concerted  effort  was  made  by  them  to  sys- 
tematize  knowledge   according   to  the   new   ideas. 


THE  MODERN  ERA  129 

But  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  Voltaire,  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  XV,  that  a  thinker  arrived  who  was 
able  to  tear  away  the  last  shreds  of  the  veil  of  su- 
perstition. Voltaire  and  the  group  of  philosophers 
who  gathered  around  him  dominated  the  political 
thought  of  the  world,  just  at  the  time  when  the 
economic  decay  of  France  was  driving  her  people 
to  despair;  when  the  American  colonies  of  Great 
Britain  were  realizing  that  their  industries  and  their 
commerce  could  never  thrive  until  they  could  make 
and  enforce  their  own  laws;  and  when  Germany 
had  regained  the  ground,  in  population,  wealth  and 
culture,  lost  in  the  thirty  years'  war,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before. 

The  philosophers  boldly  declared  the  doctrine  of 
freedom,  equality  and  fraternity,  and  denied  the 
divine  right  of  kings.  This  doctrine  was  very  use- 
ful to  the  burgher  class,  who  would  naturally  feel 
inclined  to  claim  any  political  privileges  which 
they  could  pay  for,  and  their  support  could  earn 
from  the  powers  in  control.  It  also  had  a  mar- 
velous fascination  for  the  man  lower  down.  In  it 
he  saw  the  restoration  of  his  humanhood  to  its  nat- 
ural estate,  for  which  he  longed  as  a  captive  for 
his  home.  And  it  was,  in  the  main,  the  energy 
generated  in  the  common  man  by  this  golden  dream, 
which  won  the  right  to  rule,  for  the  wealthy  middle 
class,  in  the  century  to  come. 

The  war  for  independence,  in  America,  excited 
the  most  intense  enthusiasm  among  the  philosophers 


i3o         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

and  dreamers  of  the  European  states.  The  en- 
thusiasm reached  such  a  height  in  France  that  the 
king  was  compelled  to  declare  war  in  behalf  of  the 
American  colonies,  and  the  entire  continent  watched 
the  struggle  with  breathless  eagerness.  America  was 
to  be  the  test  of  their  ideals;  in  her  their  dreams 
were  to  come  true.  And  those  dreams  were  cher- 
ished with  a  devotion  in  proportion  to  their  lack  of 
freedom. 

Louis  XV  died  in  1774,  two  years  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  on  the  part  of  the 
American  colonies.  He  left  an  absolute  monarchy, 
with  a  very  poor  economic  administration  and  totter- 
ing under  a  heavy  load  of  ancient  sins  against  Its 
people.  He  left  a  people  frantic  with  resentment 
and  intoxicated  with  the  smell  of  battle  wafted  from 
America;  and,  he  left  all  to  a  son  who  was  a  simple, 
kindly  gentlemen,  without  the  slightest  comprehen- 
sion of  the  situation  or  its  needs. 

The  successful  issue  of  the  war  in  America  and 
the  establishment  of  a  republic  fed  the  flame  of  pop- 
ular enthusiasm  in  France;  as  something  having 
special  meaning  for  their  own  people.  In  Ger- 
many, it  was  watched  as  a  new  planet  discovered  in 
the  far-off  heavens. 

The  situation  in  France  growing  worse  all  the  time, 
and  the  democratic  enthusiasm  becoming  stronger,  led 
to  a  clamor  for  the  restoration  of  the  States  General, 
which  had  not  been  called  together  since  1614. 
It  was  called  in  1789,  resolved  itself  into  a  Constit- 


THE  MODERN  ERA  131 

uent  Assembly,  and  after  two  years'  labor  brought 
forth  a  constitution  for  the  monarchy.  But  it  was 
simply  a  political  system  and  not  an  administrative 
machine,  which  was  what  the  country  needed.  The 
ship  of  state  remained  stuck  in  the  mud ;  the  clamor 
became  constantly  worse.  In  1791  the  Constituent 
Assembly  dissolved,  the  constitution  was  torn  up, 
a  new  Assembly  was  called,  the  monarchy  was 
abolished  and  a  republican  constitution  was  drawn 
up.  Still  the  ship  of  state  refused  to  budge. 
Orators  orated,  political  theorists  declaimed;  yet 
no  economic  administration  was  established.  A  na- 
tional convention  was  elected  by  universal  suffrage 
in  1792;  the  royalists  were  thrown  into  prison,  the 
prison  doors  were  thrown  open  and  the  prisoners  mas- 
sacred by  the  mob  while  the  convention  sat;  there  was 
no  head  to  the  government.  The  king  and  queen 
were  beheaded,  the  royalists  were  guillotined,  then 
the  moderate  republicans  were  sent  to  the  block. 
Now  the  ship  of  state  listed  badly  to  port,  and  the 
fires  went  out  under  the  boilers.  Of  the  crew  which 
rernained,  everybody  suspected  everybody  else,  and 
to  be  "suspect"  was  to  be  beheaded.  The  Reign  of 
Terror  was  followed  by  the  Directory,  the  Directory 
by  the  Consulate,  and  the  Consulate  by  the  Empire 
of  Napoleon.  Then  France  abandoned  itself  for 
ten  years  to  the  worst  vices  of  kings;  to  wars  of  re- 
venge and  of  conquest.  The  allied  European 
powers  came  to  the  gates  of  Paris,  drove  out  the 
military  dictator  and  restored  the  Bourbon  dynasty. 


132         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

After  this,  revolution  and  counter-revolution  suc- 
ceeded fast  and  furiously  in  France,  until  the  mid- 
dle of  the  19th  century.  But  in  the  meantime,  an- 
other revolution  had  begun,  of  a  kind  which  knows 
no  turning  back;  namely,  the  economic  revolution. 

The  courts  of  the  German  states  had  long  been 
centres  of  philosophy,  science  and  art,  at  the  same 
time  that  political  aspirations  were  sternly  repressed 
and  the  systems  of  absolute  monarchy  were  main- 
tained. But  as  the  middle  of  the  19th  century  ap- 
proached, the  peoples  of  both  Germany  and  France, 
with  one  common  universal  impulse,  burst  their 
political  bonds,  and  by  the  irresistible  power  of 
inward  growth,  each  people  raised  itself  one  step 
higher  on  the  ladder  of  political  freedom.  France 
became  a  republic  and  Germany  a  collection  of  con- 
stitutional monarchies,  which  later  coalesced  into 
the  German  Empire. 

Parliamentary  government,  or  that  type  which 
prevails  along  with  the  lodgment  of  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  the  middle  class,  was  now  established 
through  the  more  important  states  of  the  western 
world.  Again  it  would  seem  as  if  the  golden  age 
was  about  to  appear.  But  no  I  Practical  vices 
immediately  began  to  manifest  themselves  in  the 
system;  and  at  the  same  time,  new  forces  were  set 
at  work  by  the  economic  revolution,  which  were 
destined  to  overturn  the  parliamentary  system  of 
government,  and  establish  the  industrial  democracy 
in  its  stead. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION 

IT  is  impossible  to  follow  all  the  developments  of 
manufacturing  implements,  by  means  of  which 
the  tool  grew  into  the  machine;  but  about  the  year 
1770  a  number  of  inventions  were  made  which 
placed  the  spinning  and  weaving  processes  on  a  new 
footing.  The  steam  engine  was  at  the  same  time 
developed  to  such  a  point  of  efficiency  that  it  be- 
came possible  to  use  it  to  supply  power  for  the 
turning  of  machinery.  The  possibility  of  using 
steam  for  power,  in  turn,  gave  a  tremendous  im- 
pulse to  the  invention  of  machinery  of  every  kind. 
The  steam  engine  was  soon  used  for  purposes  of 
navigation  and  not  long  after,  for  traction.  And 
these  inventions  mark  again  the  opening  of  the 
door  to  a  new  state  of  social  life.  It  will  now  be 
our  business  to  outline  briefly  some  of  the  changes 
which  followed. 

In  earlier  times,  the  workman  owned  his  own 
tools,  and  he  didn't  have  to  divide  up  with  any  one 
else,  when  his  product  was  sold.  But  now,  with 
every  new  advance  in  invention,  the  machine  be- 
came more  difficult  for  the  worker  to  own.  It  was 
now  practically  impossible  for  the  workman  to  be- 

133 


134         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

come  a  self-emplo5^er;  for  he  could  neither  make  nor 
buy  the  machine,  nor  could  he  complete  the  article 
made  by  working  alone. ^  As  machines  became 
more  expensive  it  became  necessary  for  employers  to 
combine  their  capital  for  the  building  of  larger  and 
more  efficient  plants;  and  thus  the  company  is 
formed.  Before  forming  the  company  the  em- 
ployers were  obliged  to  compete  with  each  other  in 
the  labor  market;  but  now  competition  between 
them  ceased,  and  one  cause  which  had  operated  to 
keep  wages  up,  disappeared.  In  earlier  times,  the 
large  aggregations  of  capital  had  been  engaged  in 
commerce,  and  the  commercial  class  had  gained  the 
upper  hand  in  politics.  But  from  this  time,  in- 
dustrial enterprises  claim  a  constantly  larger  share 
of  capital,  and  the  owners  of  the  industries  gain  a 
corresponding  share  of  political  control. 

By  improvements  in  machinery  and  combinations 
of  capital  a  great  gain  in  efficiency  is  produced. 
More  goods  are  turned  out  by  the  same  number  of 
men.  But  these  men  can  not  buy  back  the  in- 
creased quantity  of  goods  they  make;  because  they 
do  not  get  any  more  wages  than  they  did  before — 
at  least  not  more  in  proportion  to  their  increased 
product.  And  so  another  market  must  be  found 
for  the  goods. 

Wars  and  explorations  In  America  consumed  a 
considerable  amount  of  goods  and  yielded  a  certain 
amount  of  gold,   thus  helping  the  market.     Com- 

iKarl  Marx:   Capital,  Chapters  XIII,  XIV,  XV. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION     135 

merce  with  India  and  the  forcible  administration 
and  control  of  her  affairs  served  to  drain  fabulous 
sums  of  gold  from  her  industries  into  the  private 
coffers  of  Europe;  though  the  amount  of  European 
goods  returned  to  the  Orient  was  not  comparatively- 
large.  But  the  commercial  relations  of  manufac- 
turing Europe  were  extended  and  the  field  for  a 
wider  market  began  to  open.  The  big  corporation, 
able  to  buy  better  machinery  with  its  larger  funds, 
drove  out  the  small  producer.  It  could  undersell 
him  in  the  market.  At  the  same  time  the  market 
expanded  and  the  corporation  followed  it  up.^ 
Goods  were  so  cheapened  that  as  long  as  people  had 
money  to  buy  with,  the  large  demand  for  goods 
kept  wages  up  pretty  well  and  thus  increased  the 
buying  power  of  the  workers.  America  was  col- 
onized. Its  buying  power  helped  the  market;  but 
soon  it  very  perversely  began  to  manufacture  for  its 
own  needs  and  for  export,  in  spite  of  restrictive 
laws.  And  finally,  tired  of  foreign  made  laws,  it 
threw  off  its  allegiance  to  England,  primarily,  so 
that  it  could  control  its  own  industry  and  com- 
merce.^ With  the  spreading  of  population  in  the 
United  States,  with  the  millions  of  people  who  were 
assimilated  and  their  buying  power  increased,  it  took 
some  time  to  satisfy  the  demand  for  commodities. 
But  after  a  time  the  inevitable  happened.  Surplus 
goods,  goods  which  the  workers  could  not  buy  back 

'Karl  Marx:    Capital,   Chapter   XV. 

•A.   M.  Simons:   Class  Struggles  in  America,  pp.   17-18. 


136         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

with  their  wages,  piled  up.  There  was  no  demand 
for  them,  and  so  the  factories  closed  down,  and 
there  was  a  "panic."  Manufacturers  who  had  bor- 
rowed money  that  they  could  not  pay,  failed.  And 
the  banks  they  had  borrowed  of  failed.  The  ac- 
cumulated profits  of  manufacture,  no  longer  find- 
ing profitable  investment,  rested  in  the  banks. 
There  was  an  overproduction  of  goods  and  an  over- 
supply  of  money.  Men  who  wanted  to  work,  to 
earn  the  money  to  buy  the  goods,  were  locked  out 
of  the  factories.  Their  families  starved  while  the 
money  was  idle,  while  the  goods  deteriorated.  Pro- 
duction could  not  be  resumed  until  commodities, 
bought  with  the  savings  of  the  more  provident,  were 
reduced  to  such  a  level  that  the  demand  exceeded 
the  supply  on  hand.  A  war,  or  some  great  catastro- 
phe, such  as  a  fire,  a  flood  or  an  earthquake — any- 
thing that  causes  an  extraordinary  consumption  of 
goods  will  retard  the  approach  of  a  "panic"  or  re- 
lieve one  already  in  existence — at  a  cost  of  human 
life.  Otherwise,  the  expenditure  of  the  savings  of 
the  thrifty,  while  the  unfortunate  suffer  destitution, 
is  the  only  remedy.^ 

The  machine  having  reached  a  high  state  of  de- 
velopment, successful  competition  among  producers 

*Gunton:  Principles  of  Social  Economics,  Chapter  V.  Professor  Gun- 
ton's  theory  of  crises  is  excellently  put;  with  the  exception  that  his  idea 
of  the  reason  why  the  workingman  fails  to  buy  back  the  equivalent  of  the 
goods  he  produces  is  rather  curious.  In  conjunction  with  this,  Chapter 
XXV  of  Marx's  Capital  should  be  read.  Under  the  heading,  "Effect  of 
crises  on  the  best  paid  part  of  the  Working  Class,"  a  correct  idea  of  the 
causes  of  the  workingman's  failure   to  consume  is  given. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      137 

came  to  depend  upon  the  control  of  large  financial 
resources  and  upon  the  organization  of  selling  fa- 
cilities. Large  financial  institutions  came  to  be  al- 
lied with  the  large  industrial  concerns.  The  of- 
ficials of  the  one  often  being  the  same  persons  that 
officered  the  other.  And  under  the  financial  sys- 
tem the  smaller  banking  institutions  became  simply 
feeders  for  the  larger  ones,  so  that  the  whole  of  so- 
ciety sent  its  contributions,  in  the  form  of  deposits 
and  savings,  to  the  support  of  the  large  financial 
and  industrial  concerns. 

Competitive  selling  proved  wasteful  and  so  the 
big  corporations  in  the  same  lines  of  production  com- 
bined and  formed  the  trust.  In  this  process  of  con- 
solidation small  producers  are  forced  to  sell  to  the 
combination  by  being  subjected  to  a  disastrous  com- 
petition which  proves  fatal  to  the  weaker  party. 
The  smaller  units  of  production  are  then  closed 
down  at  the  pleasure  of  the  trust;  and  those  that  re- 
fuse to  come  in  are  ruined  and  their  competition 
eliminated.  Thus  a  condition  is  created  that  ap>- 
proaches  ever  more  nearly  to  monopoly.  As  the 
condition  of  monopoly  develops  it  becomes  more 
possible  to  control  both  the  selling  price  of  the  prod- 
uct and  that  of  raw  materials  entering  into  it. 
The  price  of  the  latter  is  depressed  until  the  profit 
in  it  is  almost  or  quite  abolished,  and  thus  the  pro- 
ducers of  it  are  put  out  of  business,  or  reduced  to  a 
low  level  of  living.  At  the  same  time  the  price  of 
the  finished  product  is  so  advanced  that  the  con- 


138         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

sumption  of  it  is  restricted.  Thus,  people  are 
thrown  out  of  employment  at  both  ends  of  the  series, 
and  the  consuming  power  of  the  public  is  reduced 
both  by  the  increase  in  the  price  of  the  finished  prod- 
uct, and  by  the  loss  of  wages  to  the  workers. 

The  improved  machinery  requires  less  strength 
and  skill  in  its  operation.  A  woman  can  operate 
it  as  well  as  a  man,  and  she  will  work  for  lower 
wages  than  he.  A  child  can  often  fill  the  place 
of  either  a  man  or  woman,  and  will  work  for  lower 
wages  than  either.  So  men  are  driven  out  by 
women,  and  women  by  children.  Thus  the  unem- 
ployed problem  arrives;  and  the  child-laborer  ap- 
pears. And  social  conditions  have  produced  the 
woman  who  works  in  the  factory,  bears  children, 
cares  for  the  children  and  the  home,  all  at  the  same 
time.  So  long  as  their  domestic  relations  fail  to 
yield  support  to  them  women  must  seek  support  by 
work  outside  of  domestic  relations.  And  so  long  as 
the  employer  can  play  these  women  against  the  man 
laborers  he  will  reduce  the  wages  of  the  men,  in 
view  of  the  lower  wages  of  the  women. 

These  conditions  arise  in  all  the  industrial  coun- 
tries at  the  same  time  and  they  are  constantly  work- 
ing toward  an  industrial  crisis  by  reducing  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  workers,  so  that  the  goods 
produced  can  not  be  bought  back  and  consumed. 
Then  we  have  "over-production."  As  machinery 
becomes  more  perfect,  and  industrial  organization 
more  efficient,  the  conditions  which  cause  crises — 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      139 

a  breaking  down  of  the  system  of  production — 
operate  with  more  swiftness,  so  that  one  crisis  suc- 
ceeds another  with  shorter  intervals  between.  The 
process  of  concentration  would  be  perfect  when  the 
international  trust  is  formed  and  its  monopoly  of 
the  world-market  becomes  complete.  It  would 
then  control  the  finances  of  the  world,  as  it  now 
dominates  those  of  the  nation;  and  it  would  be  the 
absolute  arbiter  of  the  production  of  the  raw  ma- 
terials which  enter  into  its  product.  It  could  then 
withhold  its  money  in  its  vaults,  refuse  to  pay  a  liv- 
ing price  for  its  raw  materials  or  a  living  wage  to 
its  workers,  thus  making  both  production  and  con- 
sumption impossible.  Both  the  monopoly  and  so- 
ciety would  be  brought  to  a  standstill.  This 
result  will  be  accomplished  in  the  natural  sequence 
of  events,  by  pursuing  the  course  of  competition, 
concentration  and  monopoly.  The  thing  that  the 
trust  now  sighs  for  is  new  markets  to  conquer.  As 
long  as  new  buyers  can  be  found  who  derive  their 
money  from  some  source  outside  this  series  of  opera- 
tions, the  wheels  of  manufacture  can  continue  to 
turn.  The  spread  of  population  over  new  areas 
of  the  United  States  has  caused  a  constant  expan- 
sion of  the  market  in  this  country.  But  the  fron- 
tier has  now  been  pushed  over  into  the  Pacific,  and 
the  unfilled  areas  between  are  comparatively  un- 
important. Thus  the  expansion  of  the  market  has 
almost  reached  its  limits.  The  Orient  is  opening 
up  a  world-market,  but  is  at  the  same  time  enter- 


140         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

ing  the  world-competition  as  a  producer  and  seller. 
No  more  new  markets  of  ultimate  importance  are 
now  to  be  found.  The  question  has  become  one  of 
enabling  tlie  same  people  who  make  the  goods  to 
consume  the  goods.  This  can  only  come  about 
when  the  workers  receive  in  wages  a  value  equiva- 
lent to  that  which  they  produce.  When  this  is 
done  there  will  no  longer  be  a  profit  to  the  owner 
of  the  machinery  of  production.  He  will  no  longer 
have  an  "incentive"  to  own  and  operate  the  ma- 
chinery. Production  will  have  to  be  conducted 
for  the  sake  of  consumption.  And  the  producers 
and  consumers  will  have  to  conduct  it.  Whether 
the  course  of  evolution  shall  be  permitted  to  work 
out  to  the  end,  or  how  far  it  shall  be  permitted  to 
go  in  that  direction  must  depend  upon  the  workers, 
and  those  who  realize  the  nature  of  the  process. 
If  they  come  to  an  understanding  of  the  operation 
of  the  system,  and  if  it  is  their  will  to  take  over 
the  machinery  of  production  at  an  intermediate 
stage,  they  will  thereby  save  society  from  the  whole- 
sale wretchedness  and  sacrifice  of  life  that  would 
been  entailed  in  the  working  out  of  the  process. 

As  the  capitalist  system  of  production  works  it- 
self out,  the  functions  of  government  come  to  con- 
sist more  and  more  in  the  regulation  of  industry 
and  commerce  and  less  in  the  subjection  and  con- 
trol of  persons.  A  political  democracy  tends  to 
become  an  industrial  democracy.  Under  monarchi- 
cal governments  women  have  no  political  impor- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      141 

tance  because  they  can  not  bear  arms  for  the  king, 
and  as  their  function  of  giving  birth  to  soldiers 
is  a  necessary  incident  of  getting  their  living  and 
is  performed  involuntarily,  their  support  of  the  gov- 
ernment is  a  foregone  conclusion.  So  they  have  no 
political  rights  whatever.  Under  a  political  democ- 
racy the  conditions  in  regard  to  women  are  prac- 
tically the  same.  But  as  capitalist  production 
brings  woman  into  the  industrial  world,  her  imme- 
diate industrial  relations  place  her  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  the  men  in  society.  Bearing  arms  has  ceased 
to  be  an  important  function  of  the  citizen,  and 
woman  is  as  important  in  the  industrial  world  as 
man,  hence  her  claims  and  her  needs  are  the  same. 
The  working  women  of  the  world  are  now  begin- 
ning to  realize  what  their  position  and  their  needs 
are,  and  to  demand  recognition  in  the  government, 
in  keeping  with  their  just  claims. 

The  stage  of  domestic  manufacture,  with  the 
simple  tools,  is  favorable  to  the  unity  of  the  patri- 
archal family.  The  patriarch  conducts  the  com- 
mercial relations  of  the  family,  the  money  return 
for  the  industry  of  the  family  is  received  by  him 
and  owned  and  controlled  by  him.  This  keeps  the 
interests  of  the  family  united,  in  their  dependence 
upon  the  good  will  and  complaisance  of  the  patri- 
arch. But,  when  the  family  go  into  the  factory 
to  work,  their  wages  come  to  them  as  individuals, 
in  return  for  individual  labor,  not  as  members  of 
a  family  acting  through  a  head.     To  be  sure,  he 


142        ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

owns  their  wages,  legally;  but  is  he  entitled  to  take 
them*?  Perhaps  he  is.  But  the  question  will  sug- 
gest itself;  and  at  any  rate  he  no  longer  appears 
quite  in  the  role  of  generous  dispenser  that  he  for- 
merly did.  The  family  is  no  longer  dependent  upon 
its  head  for  a  chance  to  work;  and  this  fact  is  a 
great  leveler  of  patriarchs.  Under  the  old  regime 
of  domestic  production,  the  planting,  the  growing 
and  reaping  of  crops,  the  preparing  of  materials, 
the  mutual  pride  in  the  product  which  was  the  joint 
reward  of  co-operative  labor  formed  many  intimate 
associations  of  interest  which  bound  the  family  to- 
gether in  its  feelings  and  habits.  These  ties  are 
disrupted  by  the  change  to  factory  labor. 

Under  the  domestic  system  of  production  the  in- 
dividual was  dependent  upon  the  family  for  a 
chance  to  work.  Under  social  production  he  is  de- 
pendent upon  society  for  a  chance  to  work.  At 
present,  while  the  machinery  of  social  production 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  corporations,  the  individual 
is  dependent  on  the  corporation.  But  this  is  only 
a  transition  stage.  If  he  can  not  find  work  for  the 
corporation  in  the  place  where  his  family  lives,  he 
must  leave  the  family  to  follow  the  work.  There 
is  nothing  inscrutable  about  the  reason  why  the  fam- 
ily began  to  disintegrate  at  the  time  when  the 
application  of  steam  power  to  machines  enabled  the 
manufacturers  to  gather  in  the  towns.  Then  many 
people  whose  families  remained  at  home  followed 
the  factory  to  the  town  for  work. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      143 

We  have  seen  how  the  ties  of  mutual  interest 
and  common  experience  are  disrupted  by  the  trans- 
ference of  industry  from  the  home  to  the  factory. 
We  have  seen  members  of  the  family  forsake  the 
roof-tree  in  pursuit  of  work.  We  have  seen  the 
wife  and  child  receiving  their  pay  for  work  done, 
not  through  the  patriarch,  and  in  uncertain  quan- 
tity, as  formerly,  but  from  the  corporation,  in 
definite,  fixed  wages.  We  now  see  the  patriarch, 
no  longer  a  "liberal  provider,"  out  of  work  per- 
haps, while  his  family  support  themselves,  and  even 
him.  He  is  utterly  bereft  of  every  substantial  pos- 
session and  power  upon  which  his  state  of  patri- 
archal privilege  was  originally  based.  The  attitude 
of  the  family  toward  him  and  toward  each  other 
inevitably  undergoes  a  change.  And  he,  necessarily, 
views  his  own  position  in  the  family  in  a  different 
light  from  what  he  formerly  did.  To  his  wife  the 
following  considerations  present  themselves:  The 
woman  who  marries  may  not  escape  the  necessity 
of  working  for  wages.  She  incurs  the  possibility 
of  having  a  large  family  for  whom  she  must  care 
on  means  that  are  scant  and  uncertain  at  best.  She 
may  at  any  time  have  to  add  the  labor  of  the  wage 
worker  to  the  responsibilities  of  motherhood,  the 
pains  of  maternity  and  the  care  of  the  household. 
Is  she  justified,  from  the  standpoint  of  her  own  in- 
terests or  the  interests  of  her  possible  children,  in 
creating  such  a  situation?  As  for  the  children, 
they  are  bom  into  a  world  whose  domestic  and  so- 


144         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

cial  arrangements  are  formed,  very  poorly,  on  an 
adult  scale,  to  serve  the  special  interests  of  a  small 
class  of  adults.  They  are  launched  into  a  vortex 
of  tumult  and  nerve  strain.  The  atmosphere  of 
tranquillity,  affording  alternate  exercise  and  repose, 
which  is  necessary  for  normal  and  healthy  develop- 
ment, is  wholly  denied  to  them.  The  home  shifts 
from  time  to  time.  Light,  food,  air,  space,  all  are 
inadequate  or  polluted.  The  parents  are  irritable 
from  the  constant  friction  and  anxiety  of  the  pre- 
dicament in  which  they  live.  Naturally,  none  of 
them  can  love  "the  home"  very  deeply.  The  chil- 
dren feel  little  reverence  for  the  parents  whose  help- 
lessness exposes  the  family  to  such  a  life.  There 
are  few  common  activities  and  interests  between  the 
members  of  the  family,  hence  there  are  few  strong 
ties.  The  companions  of  the  alleyways  and  streets 
form  the  social  circle  of  the  young,  and  the  cheap 
theatres  which  offer  their  attractions  at  short  in- 
tervals along  the  city  streets  fill  up  that  vacuum  in 
their  experience  which  the  nature  of  man  abhors. 
Children  living  in  these  conditions  do  not  have  a 
reasonable  chance  to  grow  up  with  strong  minds  in 
sound  bodies.  Nor  can  this  kind  of  youthful  life 
develop  those  ideas  of  fair  and  right  conduct,  that 
honorable  and '  dignified  attitude  of  mind  which  are 
essential  to  good  citizenship.  Born  into  such  a 
world,  growing  up  in  such  an  environment,  why 
should  they  respect  any  thing  or  any  body*?  They 
do  not.     And  the  family  disintegrates  as  soon  as 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION     145 

the  children  are  old  enough  to  declare  their  inde- 
pendence. Society  has  deprived  the  family  of  the 
means  of  securing  normal  living  conditions  for  its 
future  citizens.  It  is  now  confronted  by  the  im- 
mediate and  urgent  problem  of  providing  those  con- 
ditions outside  the  family.  The  domestic  home 
having  been  destroyed,  a  social  one  must  be  pro- 
vided. 

Such  is  the  state  of  home  and  the  family  in  the  in- 
dustrial centers.  In  the  agricultural  districts  the 
condition  is  the  same  to  a  degree.  There  also, 
the  production  interests  have  largely  gone  out  of 
the  home.  The  family  is  no  longer  united  by  its 
common  experience.  The  city  streets  and  cheap 
shows  are  not  present  to  take  the  place  of  the  once- 
crowded  domestic  experience.  The  factory  and 
shop  are  not  there  to  provide  employment  for  all 
the  family;  so,  one  by  one,  they  take  the  road  to 
the  city  in  search  of  work,  of  diversion,  of  experi- 
ence, of  life.  So  much  the  worse  for  them  if  the 
life  they  find  is  not  a  normal  and  wholesome  one. 

We  saw  the  universities  established  at  the  end 
of  the  middle  ages,  the  grammar  schools,  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth,  elementary  public  schools 
were  at  last  established;  but  girls  were  not  admit- 
ted to  them  until  after  the  lapse  of  some  time,  and 
after  a  determined  struggle  had  been  made.  The 
ideal  of  "liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity"  did  not 
apply  to  women. 


146         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

The  education  imparted  in  the  public  schools, 
formed  under  the  influence  of  theological  and  aris- 
tocratic thought,  and  at  a  time  when  political  con- 
trol and  not  industrial  administration  was  the  end 
sought,  has  proved  to  be  unsuited  to  the  present 
needs  of  society.  It  is  in  no  way  related  to  indus- 
trial life,  and  industrial  life  is  the  basis  of  society. 
It  seeks  to  train  the  mind  to  ideals  which  are  out- 
grown and  it  does  not  equip  the  student  for  the 
business  of  making  a  living.  And  one  must  make 
a  living  before  one  can  live.  The  home  has  ceased 
to  train  for  industrial  life ;  it  has  no  means  of  doing 
so.  But  the  public  school  does  not  fill  the  place 
thus  left  vacant.  For  this  reason  a  revolution  in 
education  will  necessarily  follow  the  revolution  in 
industry. 

Women  have  now  won  their  way  into  nearly  all 
the  institutions  of  learning  of  high  and  low  degree ; 
and  they  have  there  abundantly  proven  their  ability 
to  perform  every  sort  of  intellectual  labor;  they  have 
made  themselves  at  home  in  every  sort  of  situation 
which  requires  intelligence,  reliability,  and  general 
good  character.  But,  strange  anomaly  as  it  is,  the 
ancient  institution  of  the  Perpetual  Tutelage  of 
Women,  which  we  noted  in  the  earliest  period  of 
Roman  history,  at  the  time  when  Rome  was  a  col- 
lection of  mud  huts,  is  still  in  operation  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  married  woman.  But  there  is  now 
hope  that  society  will  shortly  throw  off  this  yoke 
of  barbarism,  in  the  fact  that  women  have  at  last 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION     147 

begun  to  organize.  The  idea  of  their  first  organiza- 
tions, some  forty  years  ago,  was  self-culture;  their 
present  ideal  is  social  service,  but  it  can  not  be  long 
before  they  will  embrace  the  purpose  of  self-de- 
liverance. And  when  they  do,  they  will  also  deliver 
society  from  an  incubus  which  is  probably  the  great- 
est impediment  to  personal  happiness  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen. 

It  has  been  found  that,  in  a  political  democracy, 
the  class  that  are  conscious  of  their  interests,  the 
class  who  have  large  property  interests  at  stake,  who 
are  experienced  in  organization  and  the  control  of 
affairs,  control  the  votes  of  the  workers,  by  the 
methods  of  befogging  the  issues,  by  corrupting  both 
the  legislative  and  the  judiciary  powers.  Political 
democracy  proves  to  be  a  system  of  controlling 
people,  for  the  personal  interest  of  a  small  class, 
in  order  that  this  class  may  make  profits  from  the 
labor  of  the  people.  It  is  only  feasible  so  long  as 
the  people  remain  ignorant  of  the  way  the  system 
operates;  for,  though  the  people  can  not  correct  the 
evils  of  the  system  so  long  as  it  is  in  operation,  they 
can,  with  their  votes,  change  the  system,  as  soon 
as  the  industrial  foundation  of  life  is  ready  for  the 
change,  and  the  majority  of  the  people  understand 
the  situation. 

The  political  revolution  in  Germany  and  France, 
in  1848,  gave  birth  to  a  new  development  in 
thought,  which,  accompanying  the  industrial  revo- 
lution, has  been  preparing  the  way  for  another  po- 


148         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

litical  revolution.  When  modes  of  life  change,  the 
laws  must,  in  time,  change  correspondingly.  And 
a  development  in  thought  which  enables  society  to 
understand  the  change  as  it  progresses,  will,  of 
course,  facilitate  the  change.  But  if,  in  addition 
to  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  transforma- 
tion, society  can  rise  to  the  task  of  directing  it  into 
channels  chosen  on  the  basis  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, then  we  may,  indeed,  look  for  the  Golden 
Age. 

Sir  Thomas  More  spoke  truly  when  he  said  that 
society  is  a  conspiracy  of  the  rich  against  the  poor, 
which  conspiracy  is  carried  out  under  the  forms  of 
law.  But  when  a  knowledge  of  social  science  shall 
have  become  general,  and  society  shall  undertake 
the  conscious  task  of  directing  its  own  development, 
the  conspiracy  of  the  rich  against  the  poor,  of  the 
strong  against  the  weak,  will  change  into  a  con- 
spiracy of  all  mankind  against  nature,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  producing  out  of  the  natural  elements  the 
largest  amount  of  material  wealth,  for  the  satis- 
faction of  the  needs  of  man.  Along  with  this  will 
go  a  simplifying  of  processes,  a  straightening  of 
crooked  paths,  and  a  giving  up  of  personal  control, 
together  with  a  higher  order  of  economic  administra- 
tion. The  watchword  of  the  political  philosophers 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  "freedom,  equality, 
fraternity."  "Social  efficiency  and  personal  happi- 
ness" is  that  of  the  social  economists  of  the  twenti- 
eth century. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION     149 

The  formulation  of  the  Economic  Interpretation 
of  History  is  the  great  distinctive  development  of 
thought  which  can  be  dated  from  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  By  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  this  principle  had  been  pretty  well 
comprehended  and  adopted  by  the  teachers  in  the 
institutions  of  learning.  This  theory,  and  that  of 
evolution,  in  physical  science,  have  followed  in  the 
trail  of  the  industrial  revolution  and  are  now  pre- 
paring the  way  of  another  political  revolution. 
And  now,  for  the  first  time,  society  is  becoming  con- 
scious of  its  own  growth  and  striving  to  direct  it. 
In  the  year  1913,  even  the  politicians  of  all  po- 
litical parties  are  adopting  the  new  theories  to  some 
extent,  and  making  them  the  justification  of  their 
bid  for  support. 

The  direction  in  which  the  development  of  in- 
dustrial processes  is  carrying  us,  is  toward  greater 
integration  and  co-ordination.  Competition  has 
been  found  too  wasteful  and  destructive,  and  co- 
operation is  taking  its  place. 

The  main  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  coming 
social  state,  will  be  in  the  nature  of  industrial  or- 
ganization and  administration.  Political  theories 
are  constantly  losing  weight,  and  economic  or- 
ganization is  continually  gaining  ground  in  social 
importance.  A  considerable  portion  of  this  ad- 
ministrative machinery  is  a  new  growth  in  society; 
and  is  now  being  set  up  for  the  first  time  by  the 
working  class.     It  consists  in  methods  of  collective 


150         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

bargaining,  and  the  control  of  working  conditions 
by  the  workers.  The  weak  and  the  poor  are  now 
doing  some  conspiring  on  their  own  account,  and  the 
rich  and  the  strong  are  learning  that  they  have  them 
to  reckon  with.  It  is  a  wholesome  lesson,  and  as 
it  proceeds,  fair  and  square  dealing  will  become 
more  and  more  necessary  until  the  strong,  not  be- 
ing able  to  take  advantage  of  the  weak  any  longer, 
and  finding  no  profit  any  longer  in  the  conspiracy, 
will  be  glad  to  give  it  up  and  make  such  terms  as 
they  can. 

Since  the  change  from  common  ownership  to  pri- 
vate control  of  the  means  of  production,  there  has 
never  been  a  real  revolution.  The  bloody  encoun- 
ters that  have  occurred  from  time  to  time,  have 
only  resulted,  at  most,  in  some  slight  readjustments 
in  the  system.  The  conspiracy  for  the  control  of 
the  means  of  subsistence  has  gone  on  afterward,  as 
before.  But  the  revolution  which  is  now  approach- 
ing will  probably  not  be  a  bloody  encounter  at  all. 
The  workers  of  the  world  will  build  up  their  ad- 
ministrative machinery,  by  constantly  enlarging  the 
area  of  their  activities.  They  will  use  their  ballots 
to  place  their  own  people  in  control  of  their  own 
machinery. 

The  scientist,  the  artist,  the  teacher,  the  inventor, 
will  all  line  up  with  the  workers,  for  the  creation 
of  a  social  order  in  which  every  kind  of  product, 
whether  of  hand  or  brain,  will  receive  its  just  com- 
pensation, and  in  which  every  human  being  will  have 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION     151 

an  opportunity  to  live  his  own  life  and  pursue  his 
own  happiness,  in  peace  and  plenty. 

The  great  purpose  of  the  absolute  monarchies  was 
to  extend  their  territorial  boundaries;  the  great  pur- 
pose of  constitutional  monarchies  is  to  extend  their 
commercial  relations  and  control  the  world  markets. 
The  armies  of  both  types  of  governments  are  used 
for  the  selfish  purposes  of  the  ruling  class,  and  the 
men  are  induced  to  fight,  by  an  appeal  to  their 
"patriotism."  Under  a  political  democracy  there 
is  no  theoretical  justification  for  an  army,  except- 
ing for  purposes  of  defense;  but  as  capital  is  trans- 
ferred from  commercial  to  industrial  investments, 
and  as  the  exploitation  of  the  workers  becomes  ever 
more  intense,  strikes  follow  which  the  employers 
are  not  personally  able  to  quell,  and  the  army  or 
militia  of  the  state  is  used  against  the  working  class 
of  the  state,  in  the  private  interest  of  the  employers. 
In  case  of  strikes  it  is  marched  to  the  scene,  and 
its  guns  are  trained  against  the  workers.  The  ap- 
peal to  patriotism  is  still  used,  however,  to  induce 
the  working  men  in  the  army  to  shoot  the  working 
men  on  strike. 

In  the  meantime,  the  workers  are  being  forced 
into  solidarity  by  the  conditions  of  their  work. 
We  saw  that  in  the  medieval  towns,  the  craft  guilds 
were  powerless  to  better  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ers until  they  all  joined  in  one  big  organization, 
for  the  interests  of  their  class.  Then  they  gained 
political  power  in  the  towns.     Craft  unions  of  the 


152         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

same  type  were  in  existence  the  world  over  at  the 
time  when  the  industrial  revolution  set  in.  But 
they  were  no  longer  organized  in  big  bodies  for 
political  purposes,  because  the  towns  had  been  ab- 
sorbed by  the  state,  and  the  political  relations  of 
the  individual  were  with  the  state.  So  there  were 
unions  of  the  old  craft  type,  in  every  industrial 
country.  But,  as  the  machine  is  perfected,  it  takes 
over  the  job  of  the  skilled  artisan,  and  all  there 
is  left  for  him  to  do  is  to  pull  a  lever  or  press  a  but- 
ton; and  by  this  process  the  separate  craft  lines 
are  obliterated  and  all  workmen  are  leveled  down 
to  the  plane  of  operatives.  Thus  the  aristocracy 
of  skill  disappears  from  the  world  of  labor.  Physi- 
cal strength  is  no  longer  an  element,  a  woman  can 
pull  a  lever  or  press  a  button  as  well  as  a  man,  and 
the  aristocracy  of  sex  disappears.  A  black,  brown, 
or  yellow  man  is  as  good  an  adjunct  to  a  machine 
as  a  white  man,  and  the  aristocracy  of  color  van- 
ishes. Race,  creed,  all  are  of  no  account  to  the 
working  class.  Instead  of  maintaining  innumerable 
craft  unions,  the  logical  thing  has  now  come  to  be 
for  all  to  belong  to  one  big  union.  The  logic  of  the 
situation  is  now  producing  its  results;  craft  unions 
are  disintegrating  and  the  union  on  the  large  lines 
of  related  industries  is  growing  up.  When  all  the 
operatives  in  an  industry  go  on  strike,  the  employers 
will  naturally  be  brought  to  terms  much  more  quickly 
than  they  will  if  only  those  skilled  craftsmen  who 
are  still  in  some  way  related  to  the  industry,  go 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      153 

on  strike.  If  a  strike  of  operatives  in  one  city  calls 
out  the  operatives  in  all  other  cities,  so  that  the 
sources  of  supply  for  trade  are  stopped,  so  much 
the  better.  When,  added  to  this,  international 
boundaries  are  obliterated,  the  workers  will  be  in 
a  position  to  dictate  terms  to  their  exploiters.  They 
will  also  be  in  a  position  to  take  over  the  control 
and  operation  of  the  industries,  for  their  own  pur- 
poses. 

Consolidation  of  capital  and  management  has 
gone  so  far  on  the  part  of  the  owners  of  the  ma- 
chines, that  they  have  been  able  not  only  to  keep 
wages  down  in  the  face  of  rising  prices,  but  have 
been  able  to  raise  prices  to  such  an  extent  that  a 
general  feeling  of  alarm  has  spread  throughout  the 
country,  lest  an  uprising  of  the  underpaid  operatives 
will  follow.  Annual  dividends  soaring  into  the 
hundreds  per  cent,  have  become  common,  and  a 
general  campaign  of  "trust-busting"  by  the  gov- 
ernment has  set  in.  But  at  the  beginning  of  1913, 
though  a  number  of  trusts  have  been  "busted,"  in 
no  case  had  the  price  of  the  product  been  reduced. 

The  control  of  money  and  credit  has  gone  so 
far  that  a  congressional  committee  is  now  conduct- 
ing an  investigation  into  the  same.  And  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan  has  gravely  testified  as  a  witness  be- 
fore this  committee  that  credit  can  be  cornered, 
and  that  at  the  present  time,  no  man  can  borrow 
capital  in  this  country  unless  the  "character"  of  that 
man  suits  those  in  control,  of  whom  he  is  the  head. 


154         ECONOMIC  DETERMINISM 

Mr.  Morgan's  basis  of  estimating  "character"  is 
not  revealed.  It  is  now  proposed  that  congress 
shall  pass  laws  which  will  "bust"  this  combination 
in  control  of  credit;  but  the  results  of  the  effort  to 
prevent  the  monopolizing  of  commodities  do  not 
afford  a  basis  of  much  hope  that  the  effort  will  be 
successful. 

The  consolidation  of  labor  is  progressing  rapidly, 
but  is  not  yet  abreast  of  that  of  capital.  Yet  the 
conflict  is  becoming  so  sharp  that  employers  all  along 
the  line  are  beginning  to  make  concessions  on  minor 
points.  Moreover,  within  the  last  few  years,  the 
principles  of  evolutionary  science  have  been  ap- 
plied to  the  field  of  psychology  and  sociology,  as 
they  never  were  before,  and  the  result  has  been  a 
revolution  in  that  field  also.  So  that  it  is  now 
understood,  by  at  least  the  most  intelligent,  that 
egotistic  exploitation  is  not  only  antisocial,  but  is 
destructive  of  personal  welfare,  even  of  those  who 
get  the  profits;  not  as  a  matter  of  sentiment,  but 
as  a  matter  of  hard  fact.  In  this  way,  the  scientist 
is  joining  forces  with  the  industrial  union  in  recom- 
mending a  course  of  moderation  to  the  exploiters 
of  labor.  The  cost  of  this  moderation,  however, 
will  not  nearly  absorb  the  profits  which  will  accrue 
from  the  constant  increase  in  efficiency,  so  that, 
while  the  condition  of  the  workers  will  improve, 
and  they  will  become  better  able  to  maintain  the 
class  struggle,  there  will  be  an  ever  wider  gulf  be- 
tween them  and  their  employers.     And  as  the  work- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION      155 

ers  can  never  cease  to  struggle  so  long  as  any  part 
of  the  reward  of  their  labor  is  taken  from  them,  the 
result  must  necessarily  be  a  revolution,  by  which 
the  machinery  of  production  will  pass  into  the  col- 
lective possession  of  the  workers,  and  the  industries 
will,  thereafter,  be  carried  on  for  the  purpose  of 
satisfying  human  needs,  and  not  for  the  private 
profit  of  any  persons.  Hours  of  work  will  then 
be  reduced  so  that  every  one  will  have  his  shart 
and  a  means  of  earning  a  living.  Then  every  one 
will  have  time  to  read,  to  play,  to  travel,  to  dream 
and  invite  his  soul.  Consumption  will  be  vastly 
increased,  transportation  will  be  developed,  and  the 
congested  populations  of  the  cities  can  spread  out 
over  the  land.  Every  artist,  poet  and  genius  will 
have  a  chance  to  develop,  and  the  country  will  be 
dotted  over  with  art  galleries,  libraries,  concert  and 
lecture  halls.  Grand  opera  will  be  for  every  one, 
the  cheap  and  the  tawdry  will  disappear,  since  no 
one  will  need  to  make  money  out  of  perversions  and 
depravities.  Parks  and  pleasure  grounds  will  take 
the  place  of  slums,  and  social  centers  will  be  pro- 
vided, where  a  happy  and  healthy  people  can  come 
together  for  the  delights  of  refined  and  inspiring 
human  intercourse.     This  will  be  the  Revolution. 


THE    END 


PURITANISM 

What  is  the  economic  basis  for  the  demand, 
which  we  see  occasionally  cropping  out  even 
now,  to  limit  the  length  of  a  girl's  bathing 
Mit  by  law? 

Perhaps  you  have  never  thought  of  it,  but 
the  pious  horror  of  a  short  bathing  suit  is 
closely  related  to  early  rising,  political  reform, 
Sunday  baseball  games,  religous  revivals,  the 
"double  standard  of  morality,"  the  nude  in 
art,   woman   suffrage,   and  the   consumption   of 

MINCE  PIE 

If  such  a  statement  seems  to  you  far- 
fetched, then  you  will  derive  instruction  as 
well  as  enjoyment  from  a  close  reading  of 
Clarence  Meily's  new  book,  "Puritanism," 
which   is   just    off   the    press. 

This  little  book  will  enable  the  American 
people,  and  the  British  as  well,  to  understand 
themselves  as  they  never  have  before,  because 
we  have  inherited  a  large  share  of  our  ideas 
from  our  Puritan  ancestors.  It  presents  a 
fascinating  study  in  that  theory  which  has 
done  so  much  to  make  clear  to  Socialists  the 
meaning  of  life — the  theory,  nay,  the  fact, 
that  the  way  people  make  their  living  largely 
determines  their  notions  of  what  is  right  and 
moral  and  proper.  No  American  should  fail 
to  read  this  book.  It  will  enable  him  to 
understand  the  history  of  this  country  better 
than  a  library  full  of  ordinary  text  books. 
It  will  clean  out  of  his  brain  any  remaining 
infection  left  there  by  past  teachings  and  will 
enable  him  to  see  clearly  through  problems 
out  of  which  our  capitalist-minded  lawmakers, 
preachers,  professors,  and  editors  are  making 
a  mess.  A  reading  of  this  book  will  forever 
prevent  any  Socialist  legislator  from  meddling 
with  middle  class  "moral  reforms."  Attrac- 
tively bound  in  cloth  and  well  printed.  Price, 
50  cents  postpaid. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY, 
118  West  Kinzie  St.,  Chicago. 


SOCIAUST  BOOKS 


Published  Co-operatively,  Not  for  Profit 
But  for  Propaganda 


Allman's  God's  Children  |0.50 

Andresen's  The  Republic 1.00 

Baker's  The  Rose  Door 1.00 

Beals'  The  Rebel  at  Large 60 

Bebel's  Woman  and  Socialism 1.50 

Blatchf ord's  Britain  for  the  British 50 

Blatchford's  God  and  My  Neighbor 1.00 

Boelsche's  The  Evolution  of  Man 50 

Boelsche's  The  Triumph  of  Life 50 

Boudin's  Theoretical  System  of  Marx 1.00 

Brenholtz's  The  Recording  Angel 1.00 

Burrowes'  Revolutionary  Essays 1.00 

Carpenter's  Love's  Coming  of  Age 1.00 

Cohen's  Socialism  for  Students 50 

Debs'  Life,  Writings  and  Speeches 1.00 

Dietzgen's  Philosophical  Essays 1.00 

Dietzgen's    Positive    Outcome    of    Phil- 
osophy      1.00 

Engels'  Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific.    .50 

Engels'  Feuerbach 50 

Engels'  Landmarks  of  Scientific  Socialism.  1.00 
Engels'  Origin  of  the  Family 50 


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Ferri's  Socialism  and  Modern  Science 1.00 

Fitch's  Physical  Basis  of  Mind  and  Morals  1.00 

France's  Germs  of  Mind  in  Plants 50 

Franklin's  The  Socialization  of  Humanity.  2.00 

Gladys'  Thoughts  of  a  Fool 1.00 

Hitchcock's  The  Socialist  Argument 1.00 

Hightower's  Happy  Hunting  Grounds 1.00 

Hitch's  Goethe's  Faust 50 

Kautsky's  The  Class  Struggle 50 

Kautsky's  The  Social  Revolution 50 

Kautsky's    Ethics    and    Materiedist    Con- 
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Labriola's     Materialistic     Conception     of 

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Labriola's  Socialism  and  Philosophy 1.00 

Laf  argue's  The  Evolution  of  Property ...     .50 
Lafargue's   The   Right   to   Be   Lazy   and 

Other  Studies  50 

Lafargue's      Social     and      Philosophical 

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La  Monte's  Socialism,  Positive  and  Nega- 
tive   50 

Lewis'   (Arthur  M.)   An  Introduction  to 

Sociology    1.00 

Lewis'  (Arthur  M.)  The  Art  of  Lecturing    .50 
Lewis'  (Arthur  M.)  Evolution,  Social  and 

Organic    50 

Lewis'    (Arthur    M.)    Marx    vs.    Tolstoy 

(Darrow  Debate)   50 

Lewis'  (Arthur  M.)  Ten  Blind  Leaders..     .50 
Lewis'  (Arthur  M.)  Vital  Problems  in  So- 
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Lewis'    (Austin)    Rise    of   the    American 

Proletarian    1.00 

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Liebknecht's  Memoirs  of  Karl  Marx 50 

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Meily's  Puritanism 50 

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Meyer's  The  Making  of  the  World 60 

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Myers'  Great  American  Fortunes,  Vol.  I . .  1.50 
Myers'  Great  American  Fortunes,  Vol.  II.  1.50 
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Myers*  History  of  the  Supreme  Court 2.00 

Nietzsche's  Human,  All  Too  Human 50 

Farce's  Economic  Determinism 1.00 

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Plummer's  Gracia,  A  Social  Tragedy....  1.00 

Pollock's  The  Russian  Bastile 60 

Pouget's    Sabotage    50 

Rappaport's  Looking  Forward 1.00 

Raymond's  Rebels  of  the  New  South 1.00 

Richardson's  Industrial  Problems 1.00 

Russell's  Stories  of  the  Great  Railroads . .  1.00 

Simons'  The  American  Farmer 50 

Simons'  Class  Struggles  in  America 50 

Sinclair's  Prince  Hagen 1.00 

Spar  go's  Capitalist  and  Laborer 50 

Spargo's  Common  Sense  of  Socialism...,  1.00 

Spargo's  The  Marx  He  Knew 50 

Steere's  When  Things  Were  Doing 1.00 


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Triggs'  The  Changing  Order 1.00 

Turner's   Barbarous    Mexico 1.50 

Untermann's  The  World's  Revolutions...     .50 

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Untermann's  Science  and  Revolution 50 

Vjiil's  Modern  Socialism 75 

Vail's  Principles  of  Scientific  Socialism..  1.00 

Ward's  The  Ancient  Lowly,  Vol.  1 2.00 

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Winchevsky's  Stories  of  the  Struggle ....  $0.50 

Wooldridge's  Perfecting  the  Earth 1.00 

Work's  What's  So  and  What  Isn't 60 


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Series  9482 


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SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARV  FAaLrrY 


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